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1^ LIBRARY 1^^; 



Art. I.— Preliminary Account of Synute lyidclicUa, a Neiv 

 Genus and Species of Calcareous Sponges. 



By Arthur Dendy, D. Sc, F.L.S. 



[Read March 12, 1891.] 



The sponge which forms the subject of the present 

 communication exhibits a very interesting modification 

 of the usual Sycon type of Calcisponge organisation. If we 

 imagine a colony of the Sycon genus Ute, whose component 

 members, growing more or less vertically upwards side by 

 side, have become fused together completely, so that the 

 w'hole colony forms a single vallate mass in which tlie 

 individuals can only be recognised externally by their oscula, 

 we have then a tolerably accurate conception of the new 

 genus Synute. The fusion of the Sycon individuals of 

 which the colony is composed is complete (extending right 

 up to the oscula) and universal, and by no means partial or 

 accidental, and the entire colony is protected on the outside 

 by a thick common cortex consisting mainly of huge oxeote 

 spicules. 



Vosmaer* gives the following diagnosis of the genus 

 Ute: — "Tubarskelet geglieclert oder nicht. Peripherisches 

 Skelet hauptsachlich aus grossen, in Schichten gelagerten 

 Stabnadeln bestehend." 



We may diagnose the genus Synute as follows : — " Sponge 

 forming a colony of Sycon individuals completely fused 

 together into a single mass invested in a common cortex. 



* " Porifer i," Bronn's Klassen imd Ordni;nf;en des Thierreichs, p. .872. 



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