ToT. N. ANNANDALE: Sponges of the Malabar Zone. 385 
Genus SPONGILLA. 
Subgenus STRATOSPONGILLA. 
The essential characters of this subgenus are, (I) that the 
gemmule-spicules lie parallel to the surface of the gemmule and 
(2) that the pneumatic coat, which is often poorly developed 
or altogether absent, lies entirely outside the gemmule-spicules. 
The skeleton is hard owing to the large number of megascleres 
present but friable owing to the poor development of spongin. 
Spicule-fibres are never very distinct, at any rate in the Indian 
species. 
Key to the Indian species of Stratospongilla. 
1. Skeleton-spicules sharply pointed. 
A. Gemmules attached to base of 
sponge ; gemmule-spicules 
cylindrical ws .. S. bombayensis. 
B. Gemmules free in parenchyma ; 
gemmule-spicules knobbed at 
the ends ee Aly PVAUELVO., NOV: 
2. Skeleton spicules abruptly rounded at 
the ends. 
Gemmules attached to base of 
sponge; their spicules sausage- 
shaped .. <= a. CALC. 
SPONGILLA (STRATOSPONGILLA) GRAVELYI, sp. nov. 
Sponge forming small, shallow cushions, very hard but 
easily broken ; external surface smooth and rounded to the eye, 
with very long and shallow channels radiating beneath the dermal 
membrane from the oscula, which are minute. and not raised 
above the surface. Colour bright green. 
Skeleton forming a regular network of single spicules and 
slender, ill-defined spicule-fibres of which the radiating or vertical 
ones are a little more distinct than the transverse. At the 
external surface the spicules project vertically upwards without 
being grouped together in any very definite manner. 
Spicules.—The megascleres are slender, sharply pointed and 
almost straight amphioxi. Their surface is neither smooth nor 
spiny but covered with minute, irregular projections ; sometimes 
a ring of short spines encircles the spicule near one or both ends. 
The length is about 12 to 14 times the greatest breadth. There 
are very few flesh-spicules, which appear to be confined to the 
dermal membrane and the neighbourhood of the gemmules. The 
few that I have seen are short, slender, almost straight, sharply 
pointed amphioxi covered with relatively long and very irregular 
spines that project at right angles to their main axis. The 
gemmule-spicules are of peculiar form. Each is curved in a 
