392 Mr. IT. J. Carter on Deep-sea 



face are nestled parasitically many small crustaceans, wliich 

 have been named, described, and fisrurcd by the Rev. Thomas 

 l{. K. Stebbing, M.A. (' Annals,' 1875, vol. xv. p. 184, pi. xv. 

 lig. 1, Sec). 



POLYMASTINA. 

 (/xao-To?, nipple.) 



I would propose this name for a group of sponges which 

 provisionally might be placed before Donafina, in tlie suborder 

 ►Suberitida, under the order Ilolorhaphidota in my classifica- 

 tion (' Ann.' 1875, vol. xvi. p. 190), characterizing it by a 

 smooth appeudiculatc (niastophorous) surface, for the most 

 part sessile, sometimes stalked ; composed internally of a 

 radiating structm^e consisting of bundles of large, smooth 

 ])ointed, fusiform spicules, for the most part round or inflated 

 ]jin-like at the inner or larger end, sometimes acerate or sharp 

 at botli ends ; faced with a smaller spicule of the like form, 

 which, together with the larger ones, project more or less 

 beyond the surface, so as to give it the villous character above 

 mentioned. More or less hollow or soft internally, or in- 

 tensely compact and liard throughout. 



Of these. Polymastia hrevis^ hulbosa, mamiUaris, ornatay and 

 rohusta, Bk. {ojj. cit. vol. iii. 1874), also Tliecopliora semi- 

 suberifes, Sdt., T. ibia, Wy. Thomson, Einalda uherrima^ 

 Sdt., with the, to me, stalked forms, viz. Polymastia stipi- 

 tata^ n. sp., Cometella simj)lex ^ n. sp., ivn.^ Podosj)on<)ia Lovenii^ 

 Bocage, together with the laminiform LatruncuUa cratera^ 

 Bocage, have all, with the exception of CometeUa simjylex^ 

 which seems to have come from the " chops " of the English 

 Channel, been dredged up at various stations respectively be- 

 tween the north of Scotland and the Fiiroe Islands, especially 

 at station Q)^^ in 345 fathoms. 



Other species of Polymastia have been described and illus- 

 trated by Dr. Bowerbank {op. cit.), viz. P. comfera, radiosa, 

 and spinularia, also by Schmidt (Atlantisch. Spongienf. 

 1870), viz. Badiella sjnmdaria, Sol., Eiiviatia sitiens and 

 the stalked sponge CometeUa. stellata perhaps ; while Bal- 

 samo-Crivelli in 1863 (Atti della Soc. Ital. di Scienze, vol. v. 

 tav. vi. figs. \^)-il) first of all figured the species Suberites 

 a-ppendiculatus. It is possible that several of these species 

 are but different forms of the same ; hence further observations 

 may considerably reduce their number. 



The second kind of sponges included under Polymastina is 

 the hard, solid, compact one, but still presenting the same 

 kind of spicules and villous surface. One of these I described 

 and illustrated in 1870 under the name of Trachya permicleata 



