176 Transactions of the Society. 



slight hooks. These arise from the edges of a mesh, and cross 

 over the interspace and one or more meshes, being placed on the 

 body and parallel to its surface. 



Fourthly, slender, short spiculae, "with a cylindrical base and a 

 rapidly attenuating stem and a fine point. These arise from the 

 outer part of the calcareous mesh. 



Lastly, small processes, curved or straight, which project from 

 the siliceous mesh into the interspace. They differ much in length, 

 and some are long and have a side projection on them. 



Much of the sarcode of the exterior of the sponge remains, and 

 there are some dermal spiculae here and there, but only three forms 

 are recognizable. 



Firstly, a four-limbed spicule has its opposite limbs placed 

 along one of the longer spicules of the sponge, and where they 

 cross at right angles there is a prominent boss. 



Secondly, a well-developed hexactinellid spicule, ending in a 

 long and well-developed aciculate brush, and being prolonged in the 

 opposite direction into an attenuate needle. 



Thirdly, some very long, linear, attenuate spiculae, in lateral 

 apposition. 



The reticulation of the body is very remarkable, and the roots, 

 so to speak, of the great cylindrical spiculae pass on the body as 

 broader meshes than those which arise from them, and form a net- 

 work irregular in the size of the spaces, but somewhat regular in its 

 direction. 



The length of the body is 2 mm. 



Coast of Portugal ; depth, 1095 fathoms. 



This might be considered a perfect germ of a Dictyonine Hex- 

 actinellid. The form may be a young one, but nevertheless the 

 spiculae are without canals. It is not a young Aphrocallistes, 

 Eiiplectella, or Farrea, and in its irregularity of mesh it approaches 

 Dactylocalyx of Schmidt, not Bowerbank. But the details of the 

 ornamentation, and the nature of the principal body-spiculae, dis- 

 tinguish the new form. 



If it is a sponge, it falls into the Dictyonine division of the 

 Hexactinellids. But if the dermal spiculae are accidental, and if 

 there is no oscule, the form will come under the Kadiolaria. I 

 propose to leave the question of the zoological position open. 



(Illustrations of the species : — 



Fig. 4. The body, magnified 30 diameters. 

 „ 5. The brush-spicule, magnified. 

 „ 6. The long spicule, magnified.) 



III. The third specimen was also derived from the calice of a 



coral which was crowded with Globigerinae, from the North Atlantic. 



It belongs to the Hexactinellids with a discontinuous skeleton. 



