182 Mr. H. J. Carter on (he 



cellular, cork-like, or like crumb of bread. Spicules of two 

 kinds, viz. skeleton- and flesh-spicules. Skeleton-spicule 

 pin-like, with smooth, fusiform, curved shaft and subterminal 

 elliptical inflation ; or simple acuate ; or pin-like, with conical 

 shaft (that is, not fusiform) and terminal inflation, which is 

 subspherical or bulb-like. Flesh-spicule of various forms, 

 sometimes two or more forms in the same species : it may be 

 acerate curved, simple or spined ; straight, sinuous, subspiral, 

 cylindrical, smooth or spined, long or short, depending upon 

 the size and number of bends ; or openly spiral and spined ; 

 or stelliform. Forms massive, lobed. 



Group 13. Donatina. 



Sarcode of the cortex orange-red and of the body pale 

 yellow or colourless in Donatio, lyncurium when fresh, 

 ? pale yellow in the rest. Surface hirsute, villous, asbestos- 

 like ; even or uniformly nodose ; pavement-like, with hexa- 

 hedral or polyhedral divisions ; sometimes (as in Polymastia) 

 furnished with tubular appendages open or closed at the ex- 

 tremities ; or hard, stony, and placoid. Structure essentially 

 radiate, consisting of thick bundles of stout spicules extending 

 from the centre or base to the circumference, where they are 

 joined by a corticular layer of much smaller spicules of a 

 similar form, or by globular stellates, or simple globular 

 bodies, or simple stellates like those of Oeodia and SteUetta 

 respectively. Intervals between the bundles of spicules filled 

 up by an areolar sarcode more or less charged with the spi- 

 cules of the species. Colour when fresh pale or cream-yellow 

 or orange-red on the surface only ; when dry light brown or 

 snow-white. Vents indistinct when on the surface of the 

 body in the dead or dried specimens, but evident when at 

 the extremities of the tubular appendages. Excretory canal- 

 system more or less cavernous, well pronounced. Pores in the 

 sarcode which tympanizes the interstices of the villous dermal 

 reticulation. Texture fine, smooth, and villous on the surface, 

 harsh, hard, and coarse internally. Spicules of two kinds, 

 viz. skeleton- and flesh-spicules. Skeleton-spicule of one 

 form only, viz. very stout, simple, curved or nearly straight 

 acerate, or simple acuate, or pin-like with fusiform shaft and 

 subterminal inflation. Flesh-spicule acuate or pin-like, fusi- 

 form, with subterminal inflation like that of the skeleton- 

 spicule ; or globular, spined stellately, globo-stellate, or simply 

 globular, or simply stellate as in Oeodia and SteUetta respec- 

 tively, — each in the aggregate forming in their respective 

 species a cortical layer, through which the skeleton-spicules 



