190 Mr. H. J. Carter on Grayella cyathophora, 



examine it, wliicli I did ; and having found it interesting in 

 many points of view, I obtained his permission to illustrate 

 and describe it. The sponge was originally got in the 

 Gulf of Suez by Mr. M'Andrew, who preserved it in spirit ; 

 and the portion sent to me is that represented in the accom- 

 panying plate, magnified twice its natural size. 



It is quite new both to Dr. Gray and myself; and out of 

 respect for Dr. Gray's labours in this way, it seems to me that 

 I cannot do better than dedicate the genus to him, and call the 

 species, from the little coral-like cups which it bears on its 

 surface, Grayella cyathoj)hora. 



Grayella, nov. gen. 



Grayella cyathophora^ mihi. PI. VII. 



Massive, sessile, spreading. Surface undulating, smooth, 

 interrupted by the presence of numerous subcircular, oval or 

 conical, cup-like projections or pores, with here and there a 

 monticular vent. Internally consisting of a distinct dermal 

 layer covering a massive spongiform structure permeated in 

 all directions by numerous cavities and excretory canals. 

 Dermal layer distinct, smooth externally, bearing the cup-like 

 bodies mentioned, with minute papillary eminences between 

 them ; consisting of condensed sarcode charged with fusiform, 

 slightly curved, spinous spicules, and connected internally 

 with the parenchyma by prolongations inwards of the cup- 

 like bodies ; a looser union generally in other places, between 

 the dermal and the parenchymatous structures. Cup-like 

 body variable in size, below the twelfth part of an inch in dia- 

 meter, subcircular or oval, flat, shallow, although considerably 

 raised above the general surface of the dermal layer by a 

 smooth vertical wall which is continuous with the latter 

 circumferentially, closed above by a cribriform disk, and open 

 below in the centre, with a funnel-shaped prolongation which 

 is extended into the parenchyma ; comjjosed of condensed 

 sarcode like the dermal layer. Cribriform disk more or less 

 concave, formed of a network of sarcode more or less hirsute 

 from the projecting ends of straight, smooth, cylindrical spi- 

 cules ; continuous at the circumference with the wall of the 

 cup; supported for some distance inwards on vertical columns 

 of sarcode, which extend between it and the sides of the cup, 

 but free in the centre, where it is spread over a compressed 

 circular cavity that, as before stated, is prolonged, funnel- 

 shaped, into the parenchyma ; cavity in the centre of the cup 

 formed by the cribriform disk above, by the columns of 

 sarcode laterally, and in continuity with the funnel-shaped 



