106 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEtTM. 



10 or 15 mm. from it. The texture is close, hard, scarcely com- 

 pressible between the fingers, and very harsh to the touch ; water- 

 worn examples are, however, frequently soft, and easily yield to 

 pressure. Colour, brownish to yellowish-olive ; after long exposure 

 yellowish-grey. 



Skeleton — With stoutish knotty main fibres, cored with very 

 unequal sand grains ; the arrangement of the fibres is very 

 peculiar ; they present a feature which has not been noted. In 

 section the wall of the cup exhibits a narrow excentric column 

 of fibres, which are parallel, longitudinal, and situated much 

 nearer the inner surface than the outer. On the inner side of the 

 column the lateral branches and terminal ends of the fibres are 

 short and obliquely bent upwards. On the outer side they are 

 long and gracefully curved in their basal third or half, thence 

 straight, parallel, and at right angles to the column. The ends 

 of the main fibres are thus presented to the outer surface, render- 

 ing it bristly in appearance and harsh to the touch. The diameter 

 of the fibres is about 0*2 mm., and they are from 0'8 to 1 mm. 

 apart. The secondary fibres are O'l mm. or less in diameter ; they 

 are usually at right angles to the primaries, with square or oblong 

 mesh 0"3 to 0'5 mm. in diameter ; near the surface the fibres 

 are finer, more branched, and the mesh becomes angular and 

 smaller. 



In the Catalogue of Sponges, and also in the Monograph, Spon- 

 gelia rectilitiea, var. tenuis, Hyatt, is treated as being identical 

 with Thorecta exemplum, var. secunda, Lendenfeld. How this 

 conclusion was arrived at I fail to comprehend. Hyatt's var. 

 tenuis, as figured on Plate xiv., is certainly very different in form 

 from Lendenfeld's var. secunda, as illustrated on Plate xxvii. in 

 the Monograph. The latter are more or less pyriforra in outline, 

 and are described as having a peduncle, which " measures in large 

 specimens at the base about 4 mm." Hyatt states that his figures 

 are all reduced to about one-fourth the original size. The basal 

 diameter of his figured specimen would, therefore, be about 60 

 mm., and the height about 40 mm. The variety secunda is 

 described as having the cup " very shallow," whilst variety tenuis, 

 Hyatt, is stated to be " regular and vase shaped." 



There are two specimens in the Lendenfeldian collection labelled 

 Thorecta exeinplxmn, var. secunda. No. 67 is in spirits ; the lower 

 portion of the sponge is wanting ; the upper part is flabellate, and 

 has a row of oscula on the thick rounded superior border ; there 

 is no trace of any central depression at the apex, and the fibres 

 are cored with sand grains, which are described as being " free 

 from foreign bodies." No. 74 is from the Northern Territory of 

 South Australia, the specimen is dry and still retains some of the 

 sand cortex. It is trumpet shaped, and 170 mm. in height ; the 

 peduncle is 8 mm. in the lesser and about 19 mm. in the greater 



