662 PROF. SCHULZE ON THE STRUCTURE AND ARRANGEMENT 
simple sarcode, as follows: “It is small in quantity, very soft, probably semi- 
fluid, extending in a thin layer over the siliceous needles and over the siliceous 
framework. It appears to contain no trace of the diffused granular horny 
matter with which the more consistent sarcode of the Halichondride is so often 
loaded.”* | 
On the other hand, BowEerBank in the following year (1869) maintained, 
with reference, however, to certain sponges which he erroneously considered 
genuine Hexactinellide, that the soft mass in the Hexactinellidz was in no less 
quantity than in other sponges, and that in Hyalonema the spicules are held 
together by a horny substance.t At the same time Oscar ScumipT, after ex- 
amining spirit specimens of different Hexactinellide, agreed with Sir WYVILLE 
THOMSON as to the consistency and quantity of the sarcode,{ while on the other 
hand Gray,§ in 1872, found two spirit specimens, brought by A. B. MEYER 
from the Philippines, “entirely covered by a thick coat of sarcode, like the 
bark on a Gorgonia, but softer, so that the siliceous fibres are entirely hidden 
from view. No one would suspect that this sponge had such a beautiful lace- 
like structure, but would suppose that it was simply a netted or pierced tube, 
with irregular, circular, thicker hoops. The flesh or sarcode is of a dark-brown 
colour, but is most likely coloured by the action of the spirit.” More complete 
information was given in 1875 by MarsHat1,|| who had an opportunity of 
examining some pieces of a Holtenia and of Euplectella aspergillum, which were 
tolerably well preserved in spirit. He described the most of the soft parts as a 
clear, viscid substance, the sarcodine somewhat consistent only in the neighbour- 
hood of the bundle of needles, and containing here and there some elliptical 
round nuclei, with nuclear corpuscules and numerous fine granules. The latter 
appeared sometimes isolated, sometimes united in rounded masses, and some- 
times aggregated in the immediate neighbourhood of the nuclei. In Huplectella 
the sarcodine is of a greenish colour, but nowhere so transparent and hyaline 
as in many parts of /oltenia; in which, however, the sarcode is also rendered 
turbid by very fine rounded particles. 
Since MarsHa.v’s paper, I am aware of several short notices on the nature of 
the soft parts of Hexactinellide, and especially those of Hup/lectella, which Sir 
WyvILLeE THomson has incidentally interwoven with his preliminary report of 
his great exploring journey, and of which the following are the most important : 
“ In fresh specimens of Huplectella aspergillum the crystal framework is covered, 
and entirely masked bya layer of grey-brown gelatinous matter.1 
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., New Series, vol. i. p. 120. 
+ Proc.’ Zool. Soc., 1869, p. 344. 
+ Prodromus of a Sponge-fauna of the Atlantic region, 1870, p. 13. 
§ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.; New Series, vol. x. p. 139. 
|| Zeit, fiir Wiss. Zool., Band xxv. p, 142. 
{| The Atlantic, p. 136. 
