480 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus PHYLLOSPONGIA Ehlers (1870). 



Phyllospongia Ehleks, i870, p. 30. — Lendenfeld, 1SS!). p. 154. 

 Phyllospongia plus Cartkriospongia, Hyatt, 1877, pp. 540, 543. 



Thin lamellate Eusponginae, often cup-shaped; frequently with 

 a sand cortex. 



The genus has been defined or species recorded by Keller, 1889-91, 

 Lendenfeld, 1897, Topsent, 1897, Thiele, 1899, Dendy, 1905, Topsent. 

 1906, and Row, 1911. 



PHYLLOSPONGIA FOLIASCENS (Pallas). 



Spongia folidscens Pallas, 1766, p. 395. 



Phyllospongia folia sccns Lendex-eelo, 18S9, p. 196 (older synonymy in 

 detail). 



Four specimens, all dried; three from the Sulu Arch i pel ago, 

 fourth (label lost) probably from same region. 



There may be some disagreement as to the specific identity of all 

 the various forms grouped together by Lendenfeld (1889, p. 196) 

 under P. foliascens, and it is well to state that the Albatross speci- 

 mens are of the type designated Halispongia ventricuZoides by 

 Bowerbank (1874 b, pi. 47. fig. 2) and Carteriospongia radiata by 

 Polejaeff (1884, pi. 4, fig. 5). Lendenfeld's figure (1889, pi. 24, fig. 

 6) represents a specimen of this type. 



The largest specimen taken along shore of Simulac Island, Tataan 

 Pass, is a conical vase 200 mm. high, 250 mm. across the mouth ; wall, 

 halfway between base and margin, 4 mm. thick. Oscula, 0.5 to 1 

 mm. in diameter, are abundant on the inner face, absent on the 

 outer face, of the vase. The reticulate appearance of the two sur- 

 faces departs slightly from Lendenfeld's description (1889, p. 197), 

 in that the polygonal dermal areas, which are marked off from one 

 another by narrow furrows, are distinctly larger and narrower on 

 the outer than on the inner (oscular) surface. These dermal areas, 

 it may be added, are produced by clusters of closely set radial 

 skeletal fibers, which are absent along the furrows. As in the 

 specimens examined by Lendenfeld, there are no horny fibers in the 

 dermal membrane, only a " sand-cortex " made up chiefly of sand 

 grains with intermingled fragments of spicules. Lendenfeld's de- 

 scription of the skeleton (p. 198) applies on the whole satisfactorily 

 to this specimen. 



A second specimen from same locality as the first is flabellate, 

 130 mm. high and considerably wider, divided above into lobes. 

 The surfaces are intact, and it may be seen that the oscula. about 

 1 mm. in diameter, are confined to one side of the lamella, on which 

 they are abundant. The dermal areas are. as in the first specimen, 

 larger and narrower on tin 1 outer (nonoscular) surface; or they 

 are simply smaller. 



