470 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vor. XI, 
can be detected and it is probable that both oscula and pores 
are highly contracted. 
The internal structure of the sponge is somewhat cavernous 
and several large canals run vertically up each branch, one situated 
in the middle being as a rule of greater calibre than the others. 
Probably the oscula are situated near the tips of the branches and 
the pores on the hispid parts of the surface. 
The skeleton forms a dense, irregular network. In the bran- 
ches its fibres curve upwards and outwards towards the external 
surface; as a rule they are directed mainly towards the inner side 
of the branch. ‘They frequently fuse together to form strands of 
great thickness, but seem to contain little or no horny matter. 
There is a horizontal reticulation of fibres below the external 
layer of small spicules. The larger spicules are closely packed 
together in the fibres and lie quite parallel to one another. The 
external layer of small spicules is horizontal over the greater part 
of the surface but in the hispid parts the spicules are vertical and 
little upright bunches can sometimes be detected that project 
through the dermal membrane. The bunches are arranged with 
considerable regularity at fairly equal distances. Sometimes they 
coincide in position with the terminations of skeletal strands, but 
this is not always so. 
The spiculation differs from that of the typical form in the 
complete absence of large stout styli and in the fact that the large 
amphioxi are on an average considerably shorter. 
Type.—No. 5010/7 ZEV, Ind. Mus. (in spirit). 
Locality.—Rock-pool at Fisher Bay, Tavoy I., off the coast 
of Tenasserim. 
This sponge approaches Dactyella, Thiele' in structure and 
fully bears out Dendy’s® suggestion as to a possible relationship 
between the two genera. Indeed, I doubt whether they are 
distinct. 
Family CHONDROSIIDAE. 
Chondrilla nucula, Schmidt. 
1862. Schmidt, Spong. Adriat. Meeres, p. 39, pl. iii, figs. 22, 22a. 
1877. Schulze, Zeitschr. Wiss. Zool. XIX, p. 108, pl. 1x, figs. 11-18. 
1881. Carter, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) VII, p. 384. 
1889 (1887). ? Id. (Cliona stellifera ?) in part, Anderson’s Fauna or 
Merguz I, p. 62. 
1891. Keller, Zez¢schy. Wiss. Zool. LII, p. 327. 
1892. Topsent, Rés. Camp. Sci. Monaco, fase. Il, p. 54. 
A re-examination of part of Carter’s original material leaves 
no doubt that the provisional species he described in 1889 under 
the name of Cliona stellifera? was founded on the association of 
spicules of a Cliona with those of a Chondrilla. The Cliona was 
in all probability C. viridis, while the Chondrilla was either Ch. 
nucula, Ch. mixta or Ch. distincta, if it was not composed of all 
1 Stiid. ti. pacif. Spongien, Bibl. Zool. XXIV (i), p. 55 (1898). 
2 In Herdman’s Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, II, p. 182 (1905). 
