﻿284 "ENDEAVOUE" SCIENTIFIC EESULTS. 



appear, not to form a tri-dimensional reticulation, as in the 

 preceding species, but, in keeping with the thinness of the 

 lamellae, to reticulate in a single plane. 



Loc. — South coast of Australia ; exact locality unknown 

 ("Endeavour"). 



EcHiNOCLATHRiA CARTERi, Ridley and Dendy. 

 (Fig. 65.) 



1887. Echinoclathria carteri, Ridley and Dendy, "Challenger" 



Monaxonida, 1887, p. 162, PI. xxix., figs. 12, 12a; 



PI. xxxi., figs. 3, 3a. 

 1907. Echinoclathna macropora, Whitelegge, Austr. Mus. 



Mem., iv., 10, 1907, p. 504. 

 [Not Echinoclathna niacropora, Whitelegge, Rec. 



Austr. Mus., iv., 2, 1901, pp. 89, 117.] 



Sponge {tinless young) ramose, probably astipitate and 

 basally encrusting ; brandies cylindrical, growing to a 

 considerable length. Lamellce thin; superficial lamellcB, 

 as a ride, disposed edgewise to the exterior. Superficial 

 '^cell-apertures'' rounded or polygonal, 2 to j mm. in 

 width. Skeleton a very irregular small-meshed retictda- 

 tion, apparently in one plane (as in E. rotunda), cojuist- 

 ing of pauci- and uni-spicular {or, rarely, aspicular) 

 sp on gin- fibres, together with a few nndtispicidar fibres 

 poor in spongin. The outlines of the fibres are indistinct, 

 owing to interstitial membranes, and the pattern of the 

 skeleton much obscured by the abundance of irregidarly 

 scattered {principal and auxiliary) spicules. Echinating 

 styli plentiful, almost entirely restricted to the exterior 

 aspect of the fibres. Megascleres : — (i.) Principal styli 

 straight, subconical when fully groivn, slightly fi4siforni 

 in their early stages, 95 to about i§o }i in length, and at 

 the most 10 ]i in diameter; {ii.) somewhat tornotely 

 pointed, cylindrical, auxiliary styli or subtylostyli, rang- 

 ing in length from {rarely less than) 120 to 160 pi, and in 

 diameter up to 2.5 ii. Microscleres : — Isochelce palmatce, 

 fairly plentiful, 9 to 15 {usually not more than ij) }i long. 



In the Australian Museum are some half-dozen specimens of 

 a sponge which I identify as Echinoclathria carteri. These 

 agree among themselves, but differ slightly in four respects 

 from the original specimens as described. In the latter, the 

 "anastomosing trabecular usually present a flat surface to- 

 wards the outside," the maximum size of the principal styli is 

 132 X 9 jt, the auxiliary spicules are basally subtylote and the 

 chelae attain a length of 15?*; in the present specimens the 

 superficial trabeculae (although often disposed obliquely to the 



