136 Dr. J. E. Gray on some 



general structure and form." I am glad to state that Mr. Carter 

 has undertaken to examine this sponge more in detail. 



The other sponge is of the shape and size of a large goblet, 

 with a cylindrical stem nearly as long as the cup, which I 

 propose to describe as 



Crateromorpha. 



Sponge attached to marine bodies, goblet-shaped. 



Body hollow, vasiform, with a circular mouth, swollen at 

 the bottom, placed at the top of the stem, and of very different 

 structure from it, the line of demarcation being distinctly 

 marked. Yase rather dilated and thick at the bottom, very thin 

 towards the edge, which is terminated by a very thin mem- 

 brane-like margin. The outer surface of the vase pierced with 

 cylindrical cavities, and the whole surface covered with a mi- 

 nute network formed of the four rays of hexaradiate spines, 

 which are so placed as to form square meshes. The internal 

 cavity large, reaching nearly to the bottom of the vase, and 

 furnished at the base with very large irregularly sliaped oscules, 

 which become smaller, more regular, and oblong-lanceolate 

 about the middle of the walls, and circular in the upper part, 

 gradually diminishing in size as they approach the margin of 

 the cavity, where they are smallest. 



Stem thick, cylindrical, with numerous parallel, similar, 

 longitudinal, cylindrical tubular spaces in a felt of spicules ; 

 covered externally with a layer of short robust ones arranged 

 longitudinally, and on this, again, the minute network with 

 square meshes, like that on the club, finally ending below in 

 a multitude of spiculiferous filaments extending some way 

 into the mass of sandy mud at its base. 



CraferoinorjjJia Meyeri. 



Hah. Philippine Islands, Talisay, on Cebu, March 1872 

 (Dr. A. B. Meyer). 



This sponge is like a large goblet, with the body about S^ 

 inches long, and a thick stem of nearly the same length, which 

 is attached to a mass of hard mud. The stem is pale reddish 

 brown, and the body greenish white ; in its dry state, and 

 most probably bleached. 



The cruciform central rays of the hexaradiate spicules are 

 short and ]:)laced regularly perpendicularly — that is to say, 

 parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body — and the others 

 horizontally, or transversely with regard to the imaginary axis 

 of the s])()nge. The rays of each sjjiculc arc free from those of 

 hxi neighbour, but overlap each other to their full extent, and 

 so thxm a regular network of square meshes, as in the genus 



\ 



