386 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Skeleton. — Megascleres: (1) Oxeas about 2.8 mm. by 34 ju. (2) Somal dichotrisenes: Rhabdome 
about 2.5 mm. by 68 M above. Cladi stout; protocladus about 150 ft by 68//; deuterocladus about 170 // 
by 50 ju at base, tapering to point; deuterocladi of same spicule not always of same length. Here and 
there are found dichot names with rhabdome much slenderer than in the type; and with cladi longer 
and also much slenderer than in the type. (3) Cloacal orthodisenes, with rhabdome 2 mm. by 25 n 
above; cladi 475 // long. No anatrisenes observed, although such spicules were present in Sollas’s 
specimens. 
Microscleres: (4) Sanidasters 12 to 14 /< long, are abundant in parenchyma and very abundant in 
dermal membrane. (5) Sollas says “oxyasters would appear to be characteristically absent.” He, 
however, observed a single spicule. In the Porto Rico specimens, a few minute and somewhat irregular 
asters having a total diameter 6 to 8 //, with a small and variable number of slender rays (chiaster type), 
are present. In a small percentage of the sanidasters, the actines become fewer in number and longer, 
while the axis decreases in length. The asters just mentioned are, I think, to be regarded as 
excessively shortened sanidasters. 
Family GE0DIID7E Gray. 
Megascleres include trisenes. Characteristic microsclere is a sterraster. 
Genus CAMINUS 0. Schmidt (1862) 
Megascleres are orthotrisenes and rhabdi; anatrisenes and protrisenes absent. Sterraster is 
spherical, and the somal microsclere a spherule. Osculum leads into a cloaca. 
Caminus sphaeroconia Sollas. 
Caminus sphxroconia , Sollas, 1888, p. 214, pi. xxvn. 
Station?, one specimen. 
Specimen is massive, obconical, 80 mm. high; two oscula on upper surface. 
Skeleton . — Spicules in general somewhat smaller than in Sollas’s specimen (from Bahia). Megas- 
cleres: (1) Strongyle about 450 to 500 // by 12 //. (2) Orthotriaene; rhabdome 240 // by 8 //; cladus 
about 148 //. Microscleres: (3) Sterraster about 44 diameter. (4) Spherule, 4 // diameter. 
Order 2 . CARN0SA Topsent. 
Sponges without megascleres. Microscleres present or absent; when present, they are asters or 
4-rayed spicules. 
Suborder 0LIG0SILICINA Vosmaer. 
Sponges either entirely without skeleton, or with only stellate microscleres. 
Family CH0NDR0SID£ F. E. Schulze. 
With a fibrous cortex. Flagellated chambers opening by special canaliculi into exhalent 
cavities. Surface slippery. 
Genus CHONDRILLA 0. Schmidt (1862). 
Bulbous or incrusting sponges with stellate spicules (spherasters associated in some species with 
oxyasters). , 
Chondrilla nucula O. Schmidt. 
Chondrilla nucula O. Schmidt, 1862, p. 39, pi. in, figs. 22, 22a. 
Chondrilla nucula F. E. Schulze, 1877, p. 24, Taf. ix. 
Chondrilla nucula Lendenfeld, 1896, p. 34, Taf. i, vi, vin, ix. 
Station 6079, two specimens incrusting Pachychalina amaranthus. 
Skeleton . — Spicules are spherasters, especially abundant in the cortex and accompanying the 
canals. In the Porto Rico forms (in one and the same individual) there is a considerable variation in 
the details of shape, as well as in the size, of the spicules. Schmidt, for Mediterranean forms, puts the 
total diameter at 27 //, with smaller sizes. Schulze and Lendenfeld, for Mediterranean forms, put 
the diameter respectively at 10 to 20 m and 13 to 28 //. In the Porto Rico specimens the cortical 
