136 
Skeleton is made up of very strong (up to 200 thick) spicula- 
fibres running mainly towards the surface at various angles; they 
are composed of styli and strongyla; the fibres are now and then 
running into one another at very acute angles, and now and then 
again spreading in two or three fibres; a special dermal skeleton 
is made up of spicule-tufts with the spicules arranged more or less 
perpendicularly towards the surface; these spicule-tufts are in some 
places apparently the continuation of the fibres coming from the 
interior of the sponge; sometimes the tufts are placed so close to 
one another that a continuous layer of spicules, forming a verit¬ 
able cortex, appears. 
Spicules: (fig. 16a—d) 1. styli, straight or only a little curved, 
thickest about the middle, from here a little tapering towards both 
base and apex, the latter is marked off very abruptly by a not 
always sharp point; length varying about 400 fi, thickness up to 
12 p. By transitory stages the styli are connected with 2. the 
strongyla, which apear as the styli without points; strongyla and 
styli have the same length and thickness; of both several develop- 
mental-forms are found; sometimes 3. ty lo ta are found, by inter- 
mediate stages connected with the strongyla. 4. rhaphides, very 
siender, a little thicker in the middle; all sizes from ca. 300 p 
down to 50 p may occur. 
Genus Biemma Cray. 
BiemmB. vha.phidioph.ova. nov. sp. 
Carnley Harbour. 45 f. Sandy clay. 6/XII.1914. 
Irregularly lumpshaped, tending towards a short club-shape, as 
far as the base is narrower than the free end of the sponge. 
Biggest specimen ca. 45 mm in greatest extension, attached to 
shells. Surface smooth, only here and there spicules are piercing 
the dermal-membrane; this latter covers the choanosome as a thin 
and smooth coating, though completely connected therewith, so that 
it cannot be peeled off with a pair of tweezers from the underlying 
tissues. Oscula ca. 0,5 mm in diameter, surrounded by a very low 
crater wall; there are only a very few of them on every spec¬ 
imen. Ostia quite shut up on specimen in hånd. Consistence rather 
firm, not at all elastic, somewhat mouldering. Colour red. Reminds 
one of a Suberites. 
