142 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



yellow outside, sponge-bvown within. Surface consisting of 

 lace-like cribriform sarcode charged with niortar-spicules, and 

 knitting together tolerably large triradiates, that is wide with 

 thinnish arms, more or less uniform in size. Pores, the holes 

 in the cribriform structure, averaging l-400th in. in diameter, 

 mixed witli larger ones four times the size, which often appear 

 to have been produced by disruption of the sarcodic partitions 

 between the smaller ones. Vents single, terminal, naked, 

 one upon each conical projection, each leading into a cloaca, 

 which is narrow, ending in a general one that is broad, 

 irregular, and compressed like the specimen ; lioles of the 

 cloaca circular, irregular in size and distance apart, lead- 

 ing inwardly to one or more openings which belong to the 

 excretory canals of the internal structure. Walls as indis- 

 tinctly defined internally as tlie cloacal cavity is irregular, 

 and, owing to the compressed form of the specimen, present- 

 ing a greater thickness of tlie cancellated structure in one 

 direction than the other, so that, for want of definition, it can 

 only be considered " wall " in name ; cancellated structure 

 consisting of parenchyma traversed by the canals of the ex- 

 cretory system, supported by a spicular structure which is 

 composed of radiates of different sizes, but mostly large, irre- 

 gularly distributed, and so far apart as to cause the sarcodic 

 portion just under the cribriform structure of the surface to 

 present dilatations similar to the subdermal cavities of the 

 non-calcareous sponges. Spicules of two kinds, viz. acerate 

 and triradiate : — 1, acerate, minute, sinuous, with one end 

 lance-pointed, averaging 15 by ^-OOOOth in. ; 2, triradiates, 

 regular and irregular^ of different sizes, averaging 117 by 

 8-6000tlis. No. 1 is confined to the cribriform sarcode of the 

 surface, where it forms the mortar-spicule j no. 2, the tri- 

 radiates, about the same size, both on the surface and in the 

 wall structure, only a little stouter in the latter ; thinnest on 

 the surface of the cloaca, where, as usual, they present long, 

 expanded arms and short shafts respectively. Size of speci- 

 men ^ in. high by 10-12ths x 3-12ths horizontally. 



Obs. There is nothing very striking in this species to dis- 

 tinguish it from the following except the absence of quadri- 

 radiates and the larger size of the staple spiculation, that is 

 the spiculation of the parenchyma, which, of course, renders 

 this structure less compact than where the spicules are smaller 

 and more numerous. It is charged with ova about 13- 

 GOOOths in. in diameter, bearing the germinal vesicle and 

 accompanied as usual by granuliferous cells about 4-6000ths 

 in. in diameter, which may be spermatic — easily recognized 

 as the spongozoa are not half this size — measurements which 



