i)! I'nn'ccdhnjH of I la: Hoijal Sociel// of Victoria. 



slightly projc'ctJnii-. (2) Sinn]], lung and slender, neaih' 

 straight, gradually sharp-pointed at the inner end and 

 usually more or less hastate or lance-pointed at tlie outei- ; 

 measui'ing about ()-24 hy 0"008 mu). These spicules occur 

 in the outermost portion of the cortex, and their outer ends 

 ])roject well beyond and more or less at right angles to the 

 dermal surface. A number of similar but longer spicules 

 insei'ted around tlie inside of the osculum form a dense but 

 not pi-ominent oscular fringe. 



/>of«?//v/.— Watson's Bay, Pt. Jackson (coll. T. Whitelegge). 



•20. Ufe spenceri, n. sp. 



Sponge solitary, sessile, globular or sub-sphericai, with 

 correspondingly dilated gastral cavity and nari'ow, naked 

 osculum. The texture is lirm and harsh to the touch, the 

 dermal surface being rather uneven and slightly i-oughened 

 by the projecting apices of some of the large oxea, but not 

 hispid. Diameter of entire sponge about 11 mm.; thickness 

 of wall about 2o ujm. Tlie dermal cortex is very thick, 

 occupying more than one-third of the entire thickness of the 

 wall. 



The inhalant pores, scattered over the surface of the 

 sponge, lead into wide, ii-regulai-, sub-dermal cavities, lying 

 in the coitex, from which narrow inhalant canals lead down 

 between the radial chambers. The radial chambers aie 

 arranged w^ith considerable I'egularity parallel to one anothei". 

 They are long and narrow^ (about 1 •() mm. by ()"14 mm.), 

 and at their distal ends they branch in a curiously iri'egular 

 manner, the branches scmietimes penetrating for some little 

 distance into the dermal cortex. The proximal ends of the 

 chambers are all situate about at the same level, which is 

 some little distance from the gastral cavity and even fron; 

 the gastral cortex, which latter, though dense, is very thin 

 as compared with the dermal cortex. Hence we find a 

 number of rather short, cylindrical, radially-arranged 

 exhalant canals, which look like continuations of the i-adial 

 chambers without the collared cells, and which may unite 

 together in groups before opening on the gastral surface. 

 The I'adial chambers are separated from the exhalant canals 

 by well-marked diaphragms. 



The .skeleton is very dense and very complicated and 

 consists of the following parts: — (1) Quadriradiates of the 

 gastral cortex ; sagittal, with straight, conical, gradually 

 sharji-pointed facial ra3's ; the oral angle is wider than the 



