SPONGES FROM COASTAL BEACHES OF N. S. WALES — "WHITELEGGE. 109 



(a) Lobose; 130 mm. by 9 mm. across the flattened summit, 

 and with numerous large scattered oscula, sides deeply pitted. 



(b) Compressed, with a broad rounded semi-circular margin, 

 bearing three or more oscula in a row, from 8 to 10 mm. in 

 diameter. Sides deeply pitted, with the apertures directed 

 upwards. 



(c) Compressed, with one or two conical processes, surmounted 

 by large oscular openings. Sides with distant shallow pits, and 

 low angular ridges. 



(d) Elongate, subcylindrical, with a single axial osculum, which 

 extends downwards to the apex of the peduncle ; surface with 

 wide angular shallow pits. 



(e) Subflabellate, with a narrow apical groove, in which are 

 seated a row of large oscula and a number of small ones, about 

 2 or 3 mm. in diameter. Surface with few distant shallow 

 depressions. 



(/) Compressed, oblong, having a shallow apical cup about as 

 wide as deep, and with or without a large central osculum, but 

 invariably with a number of the smaller kind. External surface 

 deeply pitted. 



{g) Trumpet-shaped, with a shallow apical cup, the sides lined 

 with numerous oscula, and with or without a large one in the 

 centre. Surface deeply pitted. 



(h) Regularly cup-shaped, with a wide deep cavity, which is 

 evenly rounded at the bottom internally. The inner surface is 

 closely sprinkled with oscula, from 3 to 4 mm. in diameter; the 

 external surface exhibits high ridges, conical elevations, deep 

 grooves, and pits. 



In some examples the cup is incomplete, and is accompanied by 

 conical osculiferous processes ; in others there are two shallow 

 depressions, each with a central funnel-shaped osculum. 



In two specimens there are indications of three or four incipient 

 cups at the summit. Each have a large central osculum, and 

 many small ones on the sides of the depression. 



Notwithstanding the great variation in shape and surface, the 

 texture, arrangement, and the nature of the foreign bodies in the 

 fibres are the same, in all the specimens examined. 



Thorecta mauginalis, Lenden/eld. 



(Plate XV., figs. 30, 30a -c^.) 



Thorecta exempluni, var. marginalis, Aust. Mus. Cat., xiii., 

 Sponges, 1888, p. 147; id., Mon. Horny Sponges, 1889, p. 

 361, pi. xxiv., fig. 2, pi. xxxiii., fig. 1. 



