418 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



thickness; contain many rows of spicules, which about fill the fiber \ 

 spongin moderately abundant. Free spicules are scattered between 

 the fibers. 



The dermal skeletal reticulum, which is only the outermost part of 

 the general skeleton, is composed of tangential fibers like those of the 

 interior and forming large polygonal meshes like those of the in- 

 terior. The ends of the radial fibers, which project only slightly or 

 not at all and which lie at or between the nodes of the reticulum, are 

 observable in surface views. 



The oxea is smooth, slightly curved, sharp pointed, 100 by 4 p. with 

 smaller sizes. 



Holotype.— Cut. No. 21258, U.S.N.M. 



The sponge evidently differs but little from the type (Lendenfeld, 

 1887, p. 819; the author's reference to fig. 65, pi. 26, is probably a 

 lapsus, since the figure does not correspond to the description), which 

 is from the east coast of Australia, and the chief characters of which 

 are given as follows: A bunch of branching processes, 3 mm. thick 

 and 60 mm. long, showing some oscula 400 [x in diameter ; meshes of 

 skeletal reticulum 290 \l wide (probably the common mean is meant) ; 

 fibers 50 \i thick, connectives not differing from main fibers in any 

 noteworthy degree; oxea, straight, 150 y. by 8 [*/ scattered spicules 

 between the fibers. 



Subfamily Phloeodictyinae. 



Phloeodictyina Carter, 1882, p. 117. 



Phloeodictyinae Ridley and Dendy, 1S87, p. 31.— Part Dendy, 1905, p. 165. — 

 Dendy, 1921 b, p. 44. 



Sponge body provided with fistular outgrowths. Characteristi- 

 cally the ectosomal skeleton is much denser than the choanosomal, 

 constituting a sort of rind. Microscleres in shape of sigmas or toxas 

 may be present. 



Lundbeck, 1902 (p. 56), dissolves Carter's group and distributes 

 the genera. (See George and Wilson, p. 153.) His example has 

 been followed by Topsent and others. Dendy (1905) retains the 

 group to include Phloeodictyon, Oceanapia, Histoderma (now 

 € ' oelosphaera) , Sideroderma (=Sideroder?nella Dendy 1921&), and 

 Amphiastrella, which necessitates placing it in the Desmacidonidae. 

 Rhizochalina sens. str. (Lundbeck 1902, p. 56), to cover R. oleracea 

 O. Schmidt and R. carotta O. Schmidt (Schmidt, 1870, pp. 35-36), 

 is referred by Lundbeck to the Chalininae because of the "solid 

 spongin fibers filled with a large number of very small oxea." Dendy 

 (1905) accepts this reference, while Topsent more recently (1920c?, 

 p. 2) would assign the genus to the Gelliinae. But the general 

 anatomy of Schmidt's two species is such that they might logically 



