List of Sponges Described by H. J. Carter. 35 



Natural History," which renders the study of Ids papers, 

 and the production of such a list as the pi-esent, a Hir easier 

 task than it would otherwise have been. 



It is much to be regretted, however, that Mi\ Carter has 

 never been able to collect his numerous observations and 

 bring them together in a more coherent form. As it is, they 

 remain scattered about in a state of almost hopeless 

 confusion through the 125 papeis above mentioned, and 

 without the assistance of some such list as the present, it is 

 <litticult to gain a correct idea of his work. 



The greater portion by far of Mr. Carter's work is purely 

 systematic, and consists in the description of new species ; 

 but he has also written on the Anatomy and Embjyology 

 of the group. He commenced, as we have seen, in 1847, 

 with the study of the Freshwater Sponges, and in the series ot 

 papers which he published on this subject, there are some 

 extremely important observations which have hardly 

 attiacted as much attention as they deserve. This might be 

 said of a good many of Mr. (farter's observations, and it is 

 ])0ssibly due to the fact that they are mostly more or less buried 

 in a mass ot |)urely systematic description, which none but a 

 specialist would ever think of reading. Mr. Carter is a 

 wonderfully careful and accurate observer, and considering 

 the early date at which his observations on Sjiougilla were 

 made, when the study of sponges was practically virgin soil, 

 his results are most remarkable. 



Between the years ISIO and 1868 only two papers 

 appeared in his name, but from 1868 onwards, until the 

 middle of 1887, not a year has passed in which he has not 

 ])ublished something about sponges. The year 1874 was 

 marked by special activity, for in this year he commenced 

 the publication of his " iJescriptions and Figures of Deep 

 Sea Sponges and their Spicules from the Atlantic Ocean, 

 dredged up on board H.M.S. Porcupine,"^ and in the same 

 year he published two important papers on the Develop- 

 ment of Marine Sponges.-f- The Porcupine j-eports are 

 decidedly the most valuable of Mr. Carter's .s^^stematic 

 papers, and the papers on the Development of Marine 

 Sponges are undoubtedly the most important of his more 

 purely biological works. 



The progress of the work on the Porcupine sponges was 

 interrupted b}'- the publication, in 1875, of the " Notes 



