221 



Skeleton.— Farcnchymalia long diacts, wholly smooth or rough- 

 ened towards the ends^ the more slender in bundles and the 

 thicker isolated, those in the digitate basal processes being stouter 

 and more spinous than those in the body-wall- 



Atitodcniuilia linely spined diacts, 600 — 1000 /( X 10 — 15/*, 

 often with two or four central knobs. 



Hypodcrmalia oxypentacts with the paratangential rays para- 

 tropal, the two external often forming an angle of 180", more or 

 less curved^ smooth, or finely shagreened, or shagreened and 

 provided with irregularly distributed thorns, sharp in young, but 

 blunt and occasionally branched in older spicules- 



Basalia long oxypentacts with short orthotropal or paratropal 

 paratangentials, slightly curved, shagreened, and occasionally 

 with small spines ; the outer end of the proximal ray often 

 shagreened. Diact basalia apparently absent- 



Auto gastr alia spinous diacts similar to the autodermaUa. 



Mieroscleres. — i. Discoctasters: a, large kind, 130 — 160 /< in 

 diamefter, knobbed centrum 12 — 14 /<, principal rays 18 n, ter- 

 minal rays 48 — 60 u- 



Principal rays appearing to split up by fission at different levels 

 into 6 — 8 terminal rays, the latter being slightly curved and 

 divergent, and provided with fine spines pointing backwards and 

 a 4- .to 8-toothed disk. 



b, small kind, 60 ju in diameter, with secondary rays more 

 divergent than in the large discoctasters- 



2. Oxyhexasters, 90 — 100 /< in diameter, with usually bifurcate, 

 but occasionally single, roughened rays. 



Of the two specimens, the smaller, wjiich is almost globular;, 

 has only a slightly developed root-tuft ; the larger has several 

 long digitate processes about 9 centim. long by i centim. thick, 

 provided with tufts of long pentact basalia, forming a dense root- 

 tuft. The total length of the large specimen is 23 centim-, the 

 breadth at the base 18 centim., length of body 13 centim-, of root- 

 tuft 10 centim. ; diameter of orifice 7X6 centim. ; depth of gastral 

 cavity about 6 centim. It should be remarked that the specimens 

 lave probably been considerably distorted by compression in 

 packing, as the outer veil is only intact over a small area of the 

 smaller specimen. 



The dimensions of the smaller specimen are: — .Length 13 

 centim-, with three digitate processes 2.5 centim. in length ; 

 breadth 13 centim- ; orifice 4 centim. ; depth of gastral cavity 

 about 4 centim. 



Diact basalia are apparently absent, though very numerous 

 long spicules occur which are broken at the end. All the young 

 complete spicules are pentactine- and I haye been unable to find 

 among them any diacts. In addition to the shape of the sponge 

 and the fissile character of the principal rays of the discoctasters, 

 the occurrence of spined diacts in the gastral membrane charac- 

 terizes the new species ; in all of the eight previously described 



