156 DT8TDEOP8IS. — HALME. 



millim. ; they are erect, grow out from an incrusting base, and appear slightly 

 thickened distally, sometimes even club-shaped, and rounded at the end. The 

 surface is covered with very slender and sharp-pointed conuli, 1 millim. high 

 and 2-3 millim. apart. The oscula are 2 millim. wide, situated terminally 

 on the digitate processes, and provided with sphincter-membranes. The 

 sponge is light grey in spirit, very soft and compressible. 



The skeleton consists of a uniform network of fibres 0*12 millim. thick, which 

 are filled with large sand-grains. The meshes of the network are irregular, on 

 an average 0-6 millim. wide. The ciliated chambers are spherical, pear-shaped, 

 and very large, measui'ing 0*045 millim. in diaipeter. 



Geographical Disteibution. — East coast of Australia: Port Jackson, 

 N. S. W. (Lendenfeld). 



Dysideopsis sulphurea, n. sp. 



Small, incrusting, only 3 millim. high sponges. The surface is covered 

 with conuli 3 millim. high and 4 millim. apart. The colour of the living 

 sponge is bright sulphur-yeUow, 



The skeleton consists of a network of irregularly curved fibres 0*25 millim. 

 thick, with meshes I'S millim. wide. 



Geogeaphioal Disteibution. — East coast of Australia : Port Jackson, 

 N. S. W. (Ramsay). 



Genus HALME. 



Spongidae which consist of reticulate lamellae, with a skeleton 

 composed of single rows of large sand-grains or arenaceous knotty 

 main fibres joined by exceedingly fine connecting-fibres. 



Halme simplex, Lendenfeld. 



Holme simplex, E. v. Lendenfeld, " A Monograph of the Australian Sponges. 

 — Part V. The Auleniuje," Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New- 

 South Wales, vol. x. p. 301 (1885). 



Low incrusting sponges, which attain a height of 12-20 millim. and a 

 horizontal extent of 100 millim. Erom a basal plate numerous lamellae arise, 

 which coalesce regularly in such a manner as to produce conic, honeycomb- 

 like cells. There is no dermal lamella. The free margins of the septa are 

 continuous, slightly undulating ; their surface appears granular. The colour 



