19S1] The Genus Raspailia 57 



reduced condition than in R. viminalis). In R. hornelli Dendy (1905, 

 p. 172), the dermal tufts in which the radial fibres terminate include a 

 few long styles, instead of one, surrounded by shorter ones; another 

 deviation is made in the presence of connectives between the radial 

 fibres. In R. irregularis Hentschel (1914, p. 121) the la^ge dermal pro- 

 jecting spicules are in bunches and not singly as in R. viminalis. 



In R. flagelliformis Ridley and Dendy (1887, p. 190), the radial 

 fibres, apparently not especially slender, terminate in projecting tufts 

 of small spicules; habitus is typical but if we lay stress on the dermal 

 skeleton the species must be removed to Axinella. In R. cacticutis 

 Carter (Dendy, 1895, p. 48), there are no surface tufts of spicules, and 

 the species would best be assigned to some other genus, as Pick (loc. 

 cit.) has done. 



The R. viminalis type of dermal skeleton is known to occur in a 

 number of species, and it may also occur in some of the older species 

 for which the data are imperfectly given. 

 Spicules. 



The skeletal spicules in the genus are smooth and in general styles, 

 varying to tylostyles, but oxea and strongyles may occur intermingled 

 Avith the styles {R. virninalis Schmidt, R. hifurcata Ridley, R. (Syrin- 

 gella) rhaphidophora Hentschel). A marked deviation is afforded by 

 R. vestigifera Dendy (1895, p. 47; assigned by Pick, loc. cit., to the 

 closely related genus, Echinodictj^um), in which the skeletal spicules 

 are oxea, except the small spicules of the dermal tufts which are inequi- 

 ended and more or less stylote; in this species the radial fibres are 

 stout, but the dermal tufts adhere in plan to the type of R. viminalis; 

 acanthostyles are very rare and in this sense vestigial. 



The acanthostyles may be almost {R. vestigifera) or quite absent, 

 the species in which this loss has occurred being grouped together as a 

 subgenus (Syringella) . Microscleres in the form of bundles of rha- 

 phides, may occur as in R. (Syringella) rhaphidophora; in general, 

 absent. 



The facts being so, it would seem advisable to recognize Raspailia 

 as a comprehensive, heterogeneous genus, and to include in the diagno- 

 sis the chief lines of variation, about as follows: 



Raspailia Nardo 



Habitus often slender and cylindrical, branching or not; but the 

 branches or unbranched stem may be comparatively short and stout, 

 or the branches may even appear as flattened lobe-like divisions. The 



