SPONGES COLLECTED IN PORTO RICO. 
393 
Pachychalina aurantiaca (Lendenfeld) Dendy, var. dura, n. var. 
Cladoclialina aurantiaca, LendenfeLl, 1SS7, p.7C8. 
Pachychalina aurantiaca, Dendy, 1894, p. 241. 
Station 6079, one specimen. 
Body digitate and branched. Total height, 90 mm.; diameter, 8 to 15 mm. Surface smooth. 
Abundant small subdermal cavities. No oscula. Pores where open, round and 60 to 80 ft diameter. 
Consistency very firm. Color, light brown. 
Skeleton. — Spicules. Oxea 160 to 200 by 4 ft, smooth, slightly curved, and sharp-pointed. Very 
slender young stages of same spicule common. 
Stout longitudinal spiculo-rtbers, 130 to 170 ft thick, lie in axis of body. From these equally 
stout branches curve outward, dichotomizing more or less as they go, toward surface; just below which 
they expand, breaking up into radial tufts. The tufts are connected by tangential fibers, which 
support the dermal membrane. Connectives present both between longitudinal and radial main fibers, 
transverse or oblique polyserial bauds always short, slender or about as thick as main fibers. In 
places proper connectives can not be said to exist, the main fibers here being so closely approximated 
as to fuse. The connectives for the most part are placed at such varying levels that the meshwork is 
irregular. In places, however, they form continuous lines, which may be approximately straight and 
parallel to surface; or, when deeper in interior, curvilinear and arching from surface to surface across 
the branch. Meshes very coarse, and as a rule much longer than wide. Fibers thickly packed with 
spicules; spicules also strewn in great abundance between the fibers. (Thick slices from which 
parenchyma has been removed with potash particularly useful along with ordinary sections.) 
Dermal membrane in addition to the radial tufts contains abundant tangentially strewn spicules, 
especially noticeable where pores are closed. The tangential fibers above alluded to, which lie directly 
beneath and support the membrane, are about 50 ft thick, and of same character as fibers of interior; 
meshes inclosed by them, polygonal, frequently triangular, and about 170 ft wide. 
Genus SIPHONOCHALINA 0. Schmidt (1868). 
Tubular forms; tubes smooth both inside and out, each with a large opening at the summit. 
Siphonochalina procumbens (Carter) Dendy. 
Patuloscula procumbens Carter, 1882, p. 635. 
Siphonochalina procumbens Dendy, 1890, p. 355. 
Siphonochalina procumbens Dendy, 1894, p. 245. 
Station?, one specimen. 
Sponge a repent, compressed, cylindrical mass, not excavated by a continuous cavity; bearing a 
number of short vertical inflated oscular tubes. Specimen macerated; skeleton light amber color. 
Skeleton . — Spicules slightly curved oxeas, about 75 by 4 ft. “The skeleton is a beautifully sym- 
metrical, rectangularly meshed reticulation of stout, horny fiber, rather sparsely cored by short, 
hastately-pointed oxeas. In the secondary fibers the spicules are arranged uniserially, and at some 
distance from one another; but in the primary fibers they are polysprially arranged and form a 
continuous axial core. The diameter of the fibers is about 0.07 mm., there being little difference 
between the primaries and secondaries in this respect. Toward the inner surface of the tube wall the 
network becomes irregular and very wide-meshed. The dermal skeleton is a polygonally meshed 
reticulation of stout, horny fiber, cored by sparse, uniserially arranged, oxeate spicules” (Dendy). 
The Porto Rico specimen differs from the descriptions given by Carter and Dendy only in the 
character of the dermal skeleton, which is not quite smooth, but covered with villi. The. villi are 
short, horny processes, including each a number of loosely arranged oxeas; produced by the extension 
of the main and secondary radial fibers. Secondary radial fibers are those intercalated between the 
main fibers; confined to the peripheral region. Villi, as well as a special network, are absent over 
the gastral surface. 
Siphonochalina procumbens (Carter) Dendy, var. infirma, n. var. 
Station 6079, one specimen. 
Sponge body divided into three tubular, probably repent, branches, fused with one another in 
spots; longest tube divided terminally into three short, wide, diverging branches, each with terminal 
osculum; one of the other tubes with single terminal osculum; remaining tube broken. None of the 
