112 Mr. H. J. Carter on two new Sponges 



they now are) ; diameter in the centre 2 inches ; cylindrical 

 portion between the root and the ridges 1^ in diameter by 

 3 inches long. 



Hah. Marine, growing erect in sandy mud. 



Loc. Cebu, one of the Philippine Islands (Dr. A. B. Meyer). 



Ohs. The spicules a, c, e, g closely resemble similar ones 

 in Carteria and the glass-cord respectively ; f, although 

 common to Carteria and Holtenia^ more closely resembles this 

 spicule in the latter ; and h is almost identical with the long 

 root-spicule of Holtenia and Pheronema Grayi\ h and t are 

 peculiar to the species — that is, not found in either of the other 

 sponges mentioned. The common, long, acerate fusiform spi- 

 cule with central canal-cross and inflation is apparently absent 

 here, together with the rarer spined crucial spicule of Hyalo- 

 nema^ as is apparently the case in Holtenia. ; so that our sponge 

 is a mixture of Carteria.^ Holtenia^ and Pheronema^ which 

 shows that they are all three closely allied. 



This is the most exquisite sponge that I have yet examined 

 as a whole and in its parts. Individually its spicules equal 

 any in beauty of form, and collectively surpass all. Its general 

 form has been shortly described by Dr. J. E. Gray, under the 

 name of Meyerella claviformis, in the last number of the 

 '■ Annals ' (p- 76) ; but Dr. Gray has now changed " Meyerella " 

 to " Meyerina^'' having discovered that the former has been 

 already used for something else. 



2. GrateromorpJia (nov. gen.) Meyeri^ Gray. 



Specific character. — Sarco-spiculous. General form globular, 

 wide, ovate, truncated, hollow, supported on a contracted stem, 

 goblet-shaped. Colour light sponge-yellow in its dried state. 

 Margin of the brim extemely thin, thickening towards the 

 base. Covered externally throughout with a fine reticular 

 structure of square meshwork, in the interstices of which the 

 pores are situated. Vents on the inner side of the cup enor- 

 mously large at the bottom, becoming smaller towards the 

 brim. Internal structure dense, permeated by inosculating 

 canals, which respectively open by the vents into the inner side 

 of the cup, and appear beneath the reticular structure exter- 

 nally. Stem long, round, contracted, compound, fistulous — 

 that is, consisting of a dozen longitudinal canals imbedded in 

 a felt-like disposition of the spicules, which canals open into 

 the vents at the bottom of the cup where the stem joins the 

 latter ; stem becoming dispersed at the other end, where it disap- 

 pears in a fibrous mass into the sandy mud in which the sponge 

 grew. Spicules of five kinds : — 1st, of the head : «, straight, 



