234 HTATTELLA. AXINELLA. 



high in the skeleton and 1*5 millim. apart. The dry skeleton is dark chestnut- 

 brown, very hard and only slightly compressible. 



The skeleton consists of a very dense network. The main fibres are 

 0*1 millim. thick, 0*4 millim. apart, and contain very little sand in the axis. 

 The connecting-fibres measure 0*042 millim. in thickness, are straight and 

 thickened at their base, so that the meshes, which are 0"3 millim. wide, 

 appear rounded, polygonal, or more or less circular. 



Geographical Distribution. — Atlantic: St. Domingo {British Museum 

 Coll.). 



Indian Ocean: Ceylon, Trincomalee {Warren); Aden {British Museum 

 Coll.). 



West coast of Australia : Western Australia {Baily). East coast of Aus- 

 tralia : Port Deuisou, Q. {Ramsay). 



Familia AXINELLID^. 



Cornacuspongise with large subdermal cavities and a skeleton 

 composed of a dense axial column of reticulating fibres, from which 

 distant branches extend in a plumose manner to the surface. 

 Megasclera chiefly styli. Microsclera rarely present ; never chelae. 



Genus AXINELLA. 



Axinellidse with oxeote and stylote megasclera ; without micro- 

 sclera. Sponges generally ramified, bush-like. Ramification 

 usually dichotomous. 



Axinella hispida, Montagu. 



Dictyocylindrus hispidus, J. S. Bowerbank, A Monograph of British Sponges, 



vol. ii. p. 108 (1866). 

 Spoiigia hispida, G. Montagu, " An Essay on Sponges, wdth Descriptions of 



all the Species that have been discovered on the coast of Great Britain," 



Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. ii. (1812). 



Sponge pedicelled, arborescent ; branches long and slender, dividing dicho- 

 tomously or trichotomously. Surface smooth, somewhat hispid. Oscula and 

 pores inconspicuous. Dermal membrane pellucid, aspiculous. 



Skeleton : spicules large and long styli, and spined oxea. Dermal spicules 

 same as those of the internal skeleton. Microsclera styli and oxea, long and 

 very slender, in bundles (trichites). 



