146 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
inal character of a unispicular reticulum. (Vide Topsent, 1894), p. 4; Dendy, 1894, 
p- 236.) 
The following citations may help to put the Beatifort form in its proper place in 
the immense collection of Reniera species. 
In R. simulans (Johnston) Schmidt there are multispicular primary skeletal lines 
(Topsent, r901a, p. 356; Bowerbank, 1866, p. 308). The same is true in R. dancoi 
Tops. (Topsent, 19015, p. 12). Among other species falling in this group may be men- 
tioned R. pigmentijera Dendy (1905, p. 143), R. massalis Carter, and several other 
species recorded in Dendy’s Catalogue (1894, pp. 236-238). 
Where the habitus of the sponge is tubular the multispicular tracts may form Jongi- 
tudinal fibers curving outward toward the surface, connected by secondary tracts 1 
or 2 spicules thick. This is the case in R. scotti Kirkpatrick (1908, p. 62), and is more 
or less true of R. spinosella Thiele, R. implexa Schmidt (Ridley and Dendy, 1887, p. 15; 
Topsent, 1904, p. 244), R. utriculus Tops. (1904, p. 246), R. wrceolus Rathke and Vahl 
(Topsent, 1904, p. 246; Lundbeck, 1902, p. 35). 
In several species the habitus is that of an erect lamella. In these forms also the mul- 
tispicular tracts are longitudinally placed, and may be strongly developed, more especi- 
ally in the basal part of the sponge. This is true of R. parenchyma Lundbeck (1902, 
p. 37), R. foliwm Lundbeck (1902, p. 39), R. ventilabrum Fristedt (Lundbeck, 1902, 
p. 40). In some forms of more or less massive habitus the multispicular tracts have no 
regularity of arrangement, e. g., R. zoologica Dendy (1905, p. 143). 
Forms in which the skeleton is made up in part of a reticulum and in part of dis- 
tinct polyspicular fibers might be referred, following Topsent (1904, p. 243), to Clado- 
croce Tops. The common practice (vide Lundbeck, 1902, p. 51) of not separating these 
species from the other less modified ones is followed, however, in this report. 
In several forms the originally uniform skeletal reticulum is only retained at or 
near the surface, becoming looser and less distinctly developed in the interior. This 
is the case with the Beaufort species; with R. (Isodictya) crassa Bow., in which primary 
multispicular skeletal lines are developed (Bowerbank, 1882, p. 126); with one of the 
forms (Reniera species 8) recorded by Hentschel (1912, p. 411), in which this halichon- 
drine tendency is not counterbalanced by the differentiation of distinct multispicular 
lines. 
On the other hand, there are forms in which the original simple reticulum is sup- 
planted in the ectosomal region by a reticulum composed of multispicular fibers. The 
original reticulum may persist at the very surface as in R. semifibrosa Dendy (1916, p. 
112), or may here break up in halichondrine fashion into scattered spicules, as in R. 
fibroreticulata Dendy (1916 p. 111). In both of these species there are also internal 
multispicular fibers, and, as Dendy points out, a transition is made to Pachychalina. 
Finally forms may be mentioned in which the skeletal reticulum departs from its 
primitive character in that all sides of all meshes become multispicular (Topsent, 18945, 
p- 4). 
