76 



The body of the sponge is attached to the upper end of a hollow, tubular 

 peduncle at least 25 cm, long and 5 mm. in diameter, with walls 1 mm. thick. 

 This peduncle is considerably thickened above and passes into the body of the 

 sponge with a trumpet- shaped extension. The body has on the whole the shape 

 of a cup with nearly vertical sides, gracefully bent outward above. From the base 

 of the cup large cylindrical, terminally rounded, digitate processes extend verti- 

 cally downwards. The cup is, exclusive of the basal processes, 4-5 cm. high, 

 and above, at the sharp outwardly bent margin, about 5 cm. wide. The vertical 

 lamella, forming the sides of the cup, is 2-3 mm. thick. It bears a few hemi- 

 spherical outgrowths 3-5 mm. broad, but is otherwise, both on the inner and the 

 outer side, pretty smooth. The entrances to the in- and ex-current canals which 

 traverse the lamella vertically appear as small, dark spots. The digitate process- 

 es, attached to the whole of the basal part of the cup, are up to 40 mm. long and 

 up to 15 mm. broad. They stand close together and even coalesce here and there 

 with each other laterally. At their apex one generally sees a small irregular 

 aperture. Some of these apertures may perhaps have been formed post mortem. 

 The large basal processes, the 6 or 7 largest of which form a cluster round the 

 upper end of the peduncle, are morphologically identical with the smaller hemi- 

 spherical protuberances of the lateral cup-walls. The axis of the latter however 

 is horizontal, whilst that of the former is vertical. 



The peduncular cavity does not, by gradually widening out, simply pass 

 into the central cavity of the cup, but is connected with the latter by a narrow 

 passage only, the cup-base being very thick and having grown in bulk to such 

 an extent, as only to leave this small canal open. There is accordingly no large, 

 funnel-shaped depression in the cup-bottom leading into the peduncle-cavity as 

 might, a priori, be expected, but only a small, central aperture. Round this, 

 other, larger apertures, the entrances into the diverticula of the cup-cavity 

 occupying the hemispherical and digitate processes described above, are observed. 



All the diverticula are in structure similar to the cup-wall. Both the 

 cup-wall and the processes arising from it, are pretty soft. The main supporting 

 skeleton consists of longitudinal and transverse spicular fibres composed of 

 diactines and oxyhexactines and crossing each other at right angles. The 

 diactines are smooth, several millimeters long, terminally rounded and slightly 

 thickened in a club-shaped manner at the ends. At the centre of the spicule 

 four rounded protuberances with axial canals, arranged crosswise, are situated. 



The oxyhexactines, which form two or three layers parallel to the surface, 

 are of medium stoutness and size, about 400 ^ long and sparsely covered with 

 tliin, short spines. 



The hexactine hypodermalia have an elongated distal ray, measuring 200-400 ■ 

 ^ in length, which is considerably thickened near the rounded, conic end and 



