136 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



fourth arm of quadriradiates, which is small, curved, and 

 short. Wall about l-30th inch thick, composed of ^' radial 

 chamhers^^ in juxtaposition, extending from the circular pores 

 on the surface to the holes of the cloaca ; supported by 

 a skeletal framework consisting of a great number of small 

 radiates, that is " articulated ; " the whole held together by 

 sarcode pierced by pores of intercommunication. Spicules of 

 three kinds, viz. acerate, triradiate, and quadriradiate : — 1, 

 acerates, of two forms, viz. one very large, long, symmetri- 

 cally fusiform, slightly curved and pointed at each end, about 

 150 by 6-6000ths in., and the other minute, somewhat sinuous 

 and lance-pointed at one end, 13 by ] -6000th in ; 2, triradiates, 

 more or less sagittal and comparatively small, averaging 

 about 48 by 2-6000thsin. in the shaft and 15 by 2-6000ths in. 

 in the arms respectively ; 3, quadriradiates, with the fourth 

 arm, as usual, much shorter than the rest, and curved towards 

 the mouth. No. 1 in its large form is contined to a single layer 

 on the surface, where they are arranged longitudinally parallel 

 to each other and closely approxi united, and in the minute 

 form to the cribriform sarcode of the surface, wherein it jilays 

 the part of a mortar-spicule ; no. 2, the triradiates, to the 

 radial chambers, where their heads are inwards and their 

 shafts directed outwards ; and no. 3, the quadriradiates, 

 which are also sagittal, to the surface of the cloaca, where the 

 fourth arm is so short that, to be well seen in situ, this sur- 

 face must be viewed under the microscope laterally. Size of 

 specimen f inch high by 7-48ths in its greatest horizontal 

 diameter. 



Ohs. In general form and structure this species is very much 

 like Schmidt's Ute glabra (Adriat. Spong. 1 Suppl. p. 23, Taf. 

 iii. fig. 1), but the fourth arm of the quadriradiate is much less 

 developed ; and from Hackel's spiculation (' Atlas,' Taf. Ivi. 

 tigs. 1 a-1 t) there does not appear to have been any " mor- 

 tar-spicule." Again, had it been identical with the Australian 

 species, the beauty and striking appearance of the pores on 

 the surface in the latter (which, for the most part, are con- 

 spicuously situated in lines between the large acerates, very 

 little less in size than the holes of the cloaca, and each ter- 

 minating the external end of a radial chamber) would hardly 

 have passed unnoticed, so that it may be assumed that, if not 

 a variety, it must be considered a species of Ute. At the 

 same time it may be as well to consider whether the species 

 should be called "^te" or ''^Aphroceras.'''' 



In 1858 Dr. J. E. Gray described and illustrated a small, 

 branched calcareous sponge from Hongkong under the name of 

 ^^ Aphroceras alcicornis " (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 113, pi. x. 



