On Deep-sea Sponges from the Atlantio Ocean. 30-7 



Astacoides * are large and few in number ; and the young 

 undergo no metamorphosis after quitting the Qgg. A large 

 female of Astacoides zealandicus has but 380 eggs, measuring 

 2| X 2^ raillims., under the tail ; and these are attached to the 

 appendages in the manner described by Lereboullet (in Ann. 

 des Sc. Nat. ser. 4, vol. xiv. 1860) for Astacus Jiuviatilis. 



XXVII. — Descriptions and Figures of Deep- Sea Sponges and 

 their Spicules^ from the Atlantic Ocean^ dredged up on hoard 

 H.M.8. ''Porcupine^ chiefly in 1869 {concluded). By H. J. 

 Cartee, F.R.S. &c. 



[Continued from p. 240.] 



Hymeraphia vermiculata^ Bk., var. erecta^ n. sp. (PI. XII. 

 fig. 4, and PI. XV. fig. 26, a, h.) 



General form short, cylindrical, angular, club-shaped, be- 

 coming massive, lobed and lobulated, or compressed and ex- 

 panding flabellately. Colour now yellowish white. Surface 

 hirsute, even, reticulo-pitted, more or less furrowed ; dermal 

 structure reticulate. Pores in the sarcode tympanizing the 

 interstices of the dermal reticulation. Vents scattered here 

 and there on the surface. Internal structure consisting of 

 fasciculi branching and subdividing obliquely from a central 

 axis amidst the sarcode, which again is traversed by tlie 

 branches of the excretory canal-system, that terminate for tiie 

 most part in the furrows of the surface, which in their natural 

 state are converted into canals by the dermal sarcode. Colour 

 internally the same as that of the surface, or perhaps a little 

 deeper. Spicules of one kind only, viz. skeleton- ; no flesh- 

 spicules. Skeleton-spicules of two forms, viz. : — 1, very large, 

 long and acuate, smooth, sharp-pointed, slightly curved to- 

 wards the fixed end, which is the widest part of the spicule, 

 but not inflated, 100- by 3i-1800ths inch (PI. XV. fig. 26, a) ; 

 2, subskeleton-, a much smaller spicule, vermiculate, acerate, 

 acuate, or cylindrical and obtuse at the ends, 45- by l-1800th 

 inch (fig. 26, h). The large acuates at their fixed ends are 

 imbedded in a mass of interwoven vermiculates, which thus 

 form fasciculi round them (PI. XII. fig. 4, a, J), while their 



* Astacoides, Gu^rin, Revue Zool. 1839, p. 109; Paranephrops, White, 

 in Gray's Zool. Misc. 1842, p. 78, and DiefFenbach's * New Zealand,' 1843, 

 ii. p. 267. 



