﻿l62 "ENDEAVOUR" SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



filled with (stylote) spicules, the connecting hbres are without 

 spicules and echinating acanthostyles are rare ;. its locality is 

 Port Phillip. In Whitelegge's Clathia australis on the other 

 hand, the skeleton is dendritic, the fibres are in part loaded 

 with sand particles, and are so densely echinated that even 

 Avhere the fibres are free from inclusions, the relatively few- 

 coring spicules (oxea and acanthostyles) are usually hidden 

 from view ; moreover, the specimen which Whitelegge re- 

 garded as the type-specimen was obtained (according to the 

 information supplied by the Museum Register) from Port 

 Jackson. 



Crella incrustans var. arenacea bears a certain amount of 

 resemblance, so far as habit of growth is concerned, with the 

 variety niammiUata, R. and D. The chiefly marginal location 

 of its oscula and, in correlation with this, the arrangement of 

 the main excurrent canals, as well as' the presence of foreign 

 particles in the skeleton, will, however, afford a ready means 

 of distinguishing it from the latter. As an example of the 

 sponge in one of its simpler forms of growth, the specimen 

 figured by Whitelegge will serve, though a much more regu- 

 larly flabellate form is sometimes attained. The specimen 

 figured herein (Plate xxiii., fig. 3) shows to how great an extent 

 this simplicity of form may be departed from. The specimens 

 which I have examined are the same as those which formed 

 the subject of Whitelegge's description together with several 

 which have since been added to the Museum Collection. With 

 three exceptions they are beach-w'orn dry specimens collected 

 in the vicinity of Port Jackson. The exceptions are from the 

 southern coast of Australia ; two from Port Phillip, the other 

 was obtained by the "Endeavour" off the coast of South 

 Australia, and is well preserved in alcohol. So far as the 

 difference in their state of preservation enables one to judge, 

 there is no essential difference between the Port Jackson and 

 the southern specimens, although it should be mentioned that 

 \\hereas the latter are simply leaf-shaped, the former are 

 without exception lobed or otherwise proliferate. 



Description. — The original specimen, according to Carter's 

 description, was irregularly club-shaped and lobed, with a 

 contracted base ; and measured about 230 mm. in height, by 

 60 mm. in diameter in its widest part. Dendy, who had a 

 number of specimens before him, describes the external form 

 in general terms as "massive to flabellate." The two Port 

 Phillip specimens which I have seen are simply leaf-shaped 

 and substipitate, the larger being 150 mm. in height, 85 mm. 

 in greatest breadth and 15 to 25 mm. thick. The "EndeaAOur" 

 specimen is similarly shaped, but has the margin of the plate 



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