SPONGES OF BEAUFORT (N. C.) HARBOR AND VICINITY. 161 
ellids, such as Axinella. Any cleavage of this close series of forms, all the members of 
which continue to exist, into genera is largely a matter of convention based on historical 
accidents; that is to say, certain terms and not others of the series came to be studied 
first, and so became the nuclei of genera. 
As to the course of opinion with respect to the position of Raspailia, it may be 
recalled that Ridley and Dendy (1887) first gave the genus a definite postion in modern 
classification by assigning it to the Axinellide. Topsent (1894b) removed it to the 
Ectyonine. Dendy (1895, p. 46) assented, but remarked that the genus was inter- 
mediate between the two groups, Ectyonine and Axinellide. ‘Topsent has been fol- 
lowed generally, but Vosmaer (1912), without mentioning groups by name, keeps the 
genus in the same series with Axinella, Phakellia, Acanthella, ete. Dendy (1905, p. 
172) apparently departs from his former view and now regards the resemblance of the 
Raspailia species to Axinellide as strong but “superficial.”’ He says “it is evident 
from the presence of the spined echinating styli (though these may be vestigial) that 
they are really highly modified Ectyonine.’’ The Axinellide are looked on as a poly- 
phyletic group. Dendy recently (1916, p. 96) is disposed to abandon the group entirely 
and to include the genera such as Axinella, Phakellia, etc., in the Haploscleride, thus 
virtually returning to Vosmaer’s position (1887, p. 335). Hentschel (1912, p. 413) 
brings out the skeletal resemblances between the Ectyonine genera centering around 
Raspailia and certain Axinellide, and inclines to regard it as due to kinship and not 
to convergent evolution (position of Dendy in 1895). 
Acanthella O. Schmidt. 
Form generally lamellate, consistency cartilaginous. Surface aculeate or conu- 
lose. If radial fibers are developed, they are weak, except in the basal part of the 
sponge, as compared with those of Phakellia; connectives between the radial fibers 
are lacking. Without microscleres. 
Acanthella corrugata, n.sp. (Pl. LXIII, fig. 37; Pl. LXV, figs. 46, 47; Pl. LXVI, figs. 56a, b, c,d, e.) 
One specimen taken on Fort Macon beach after a moderate southwest blow. 
Sponge body (Pl. LXIII, fig. 37, taken obliquely from above) afolded lamella; folds tend to anastomose 
and inclose cuplike compartments. Only one of the cuplike spaces is completed, and this is open at the 
bottom; there are several other partially surrounded spaces. Below, the sponge narrows to a short 
peduncle; in side view the body has about the shape of an open fan. Total height, 65 millimeters, 
greatest horizontal diameter, 95 millimeters; common thickness of lamella about 5 millimeters, extreme 
basal portion of sponge about 1o millimeters thick. Above, the lamella diminishes to a fairly thin 
margin. 
Both surfaces of the sponge are corrugated with more or less parallel ridges, about 2 millimeters 
apart, radial to the margin, converging and dying away toward the base. These are thickly beset with 
small conuli; between the ridges the surface is smooth. The extreme basal part, lacking well-defined 
ridges, is irregularly conulose. The surface is hispid, with spicules that project at the conuli. 
Color bright orange red. Consistency firm, but not rigid, fairly elastic, of the kind known as car- 
tilaginous. 
There is no difference between the two sides of the lamella. A few scattered inconspicuous oscula 
about 1 millimeter in diameter were found, and open pores, about 40 u in diameter, occur scattered over 
both surfaces. From the pores small pore canals pass through the outer stratum of the ectosome into 
subdermal canals, which extend parallel to the sponge surface. Characteristic subdermal canals measure 
too to 400 uw in diameter, the smaller sizes being the more common. From them canals lead more or less 
radially into the interior. Large canals are not abundant in any part of the sponge. The ectosome is 
