86 Mr. H. J. Carter on the 



Family 5. Potamospongida. 

 Freshwater Spouges. 



Group 19. Spongillina. 



Char. Bearing seed-like reproductive organs called " sta- 

 toblasts." 



Genera: 1. Spongilla', 2. Meyema-, 3. Tabella ; 

 4. Parmula ; 5. Uruguaya. 



Spongilla. 



Gen. char. Skeleton-spicule acerate, smooth, curved, fusi- 

 form, pointed, sometimes more or less spined or more or less 

 inflated in the centre ; sometimes accompanied by flesh- 

 spicules. Statoblast globular, crust thick, thin, or absent 

 altogether, accompanied by or charged with minute acerates 

 (PI. V. fig. 5, b b, d, &c.), smooth or spined according to the 

 species, arranged tangentially. 



* Minute acerates smooth. 



1. Spongilla Carteri^ Bk, 



Spongilla Carteri, Bk., No. 20, p. 31, pi. xxxviii. fig. 20; provisionally 

 S.friabilis, Lam., No. 12, p. 83, pi. iii. fig. 3. 



Massive, sessile. Colour greenish or faint whitish yellow. 

 Structure fragile, crumbling. Skeleton-spicule smooth, fusi- 

 form, curved, gradually t sharp-pointed. Statoblast globular; 

 aperture infundibular ; crust composed of pyramidal columns 

 of dodecahedral or polyhedral cells, hexagonal in the section, 

 regularly arranged one above another, in juxtaposition, per- 

 pendicularly to the outside of the chitinous coat on which they 

 rest ; surrounded by a layer of minute, fusiform, curved, and 

 gradually sharp-pointed, smooth acerates (No. 19, pi. viii. 

 ligs. 1-3). 



Loc. Bombay. 



2. Sjjongilla pauperculaj Bk. 

 Spongilla pauperctda, Bk., No. 20, p. 32, pi. xxxviii. fig. 21. 

 Coating and branching. Skeleton-spicule curved, fusiform, 



t " Gradually," in contradistinction to " abruptly " sharp-pointed 

 (See PL VI, figs, 14 and 15 respectively). 



