Art. XXIV. — Cata/ogue of Non-Calcarcous Sponges collected 

 by J. Braccbridge Wilson, Esq., JII.A., in the neigh- 

 bo iirliood of Port Phillip Heads. 



Part T. 



By Arthur Dendy, D.Sc, 



Professor of Biology in the Canterbury College, University of New 

 Zealand ; Corresponding Meml>er of the Eoyal Society of Victoria. 



[Eead 13th December, 1894.] 



Introductory Remarks. 



In presenting the first part of this catalogue for publication it 

 seems desirable to offer some prefatory remarks in explanation of 

 the nature of the work. The circumstances under which the 

 examination of Mr. Wilson's sponges was originally undertaken 

 have already been explained in the introduction to the first part 

 of my " Monograph of Victorian Sponges," and the reasons which 

 led to the modification of the plan originally proposed, and to the 

 at any rate temporaiy abandonment of the monograph as such, 

 have been stated in the introductory remarks to my "Synopsis, of 

 the Australian Calcarea Heterocrela." I can hardly say that I 

 regret having been obliged to modify my original plan. In the 

 case of the Homoca^la, dealt with in the first part of the mono- 

 graph, the amount of material to be examined was comparatively 

 small, and there was, consequently, a possibility of some approach 

 to completeness in the first instance. In the other gi'oups, how- 

 ever, the amount of material is so large that it certainly seems 

 desiraV)le to publish a systematic epitome without waiting for the 

 possibility of publishing complete and final descriptions accom- 

 panied by the necessary illustrations. The Calcarea Heterocada 

 have thus already been dealt with, and T now enter upon tlie 

 task of dealing similarly with the enormous mass (tf material 

 comprised under the non-calcareous sponges. 



The present catalogue makes no pretence to completeness. A 

 very large number of small specimens as yet remain entirely 



