62 M. K. A. Zittel on Fossil Galcispongice. 



irregularly placed spicules ; besides these special dermal and 

 gastral layers. 



Fossil forms unknown*. 



Family 3. Pharetrones, Zittel. 



Wall thick, with curved branching canals, or without any 

 canals. Skeletal elements arranged in anastomosing fibres. 

 A dermal layer often present. 



Eudea, Lamx. 

 (Exp. Meth. p. 40, pi. lxxiv. figs. 1-4, 1821). 



Eudea p. p., D'Orb. 



Vcrrucospotigia p. p., D'Orb. 



Epeudea, Ependea, Stegendea, From. 



Spongites, Orispongia, Quenst. 



Solenolmia, Verrucospongia, Eudea, Elasmeudea, Pom. 



Sponge simple or branched, cylindrical, clavate or pyriform, 

 attached, with a narrow tubular central cavity reaching to 

 the base. The skeleton consists of coarse anastomosing fibres, 

 which spread out like lamella? at the surface, except at the 

 vertex, become fused together, and form a smooth, dense 

 dermal layer, in which are situate round or misshapen, some- 

 times margined apertures, which are connected with shallow 

 depressions. In the same Avay the wall of the stomachal cavity 

 also consists of a smooth layer, which is only pierced by pore- 

 like openings. 



The canal-system is indistinctly developed in consequence 

 of the large-meshed texture of the skeleton ; the water pro- 

 bably passed through the large ostia of the surface into the 

 sponge-body, circulated between the large spicular fibres, and 

 reached the stomachal cavity through the above-mentioned 

 pores. In cut specimens no canals appear either in longitu- 

 dinal or in transverse sections. 



Of this genus a species from the Great Oolite of Caen was 



* A few days ago two fragments of rock belonging to the older Creta- 

 ceous, from Pirot, in Bulgaria, were sent to me by Prof. Toula of Vienna. 

 They consisted almost entirely of small subcylindrical bodies narrowed 

 downwards, about 10-15 millims. in length, and 3-4 millims. in thickness. 

 These evidently organic hollow bodies most resembled the Ggroporella 

 of the Trias, but they wanted the characteristic pores and canals of the 

 latter. It is true that radial canals open into the central cavity, and these 

 become more oblique downwards, and finally rise from below perpendicu- 

 larly into the stomachal cavity ; but there is no fibrous texture. On the 

 other hand, we sometimes observe a few large bacillar spicules, and tri- 

 and quadriradiate spicules, in the usually homogeneous wall ; but their 

 form cannot be exactly ascertained. If these bodies, which occur in 

 such quantities, belong, as I suppose, to the Leucones, this family would 

 consequently commence in the Cretaceous. 



