Sponges from South Australia. 465 



Conclusion. 



Thus have I described all the principal specimens of the 

 Spongida which have been sent to me by Mr. J. Bracebridge 

 Wilson, M.A., F.L.S., of the Church-of-England Grammar 

 School, Geelong, Col. Victoria, South Australia. It might 

 have been done better and more elaborately had time and 

 youth been on my side, but could hardly have been done more 

 correctly ; therefore^ so far as it goes, it places before the 

 reader those facts which, if he be a spongologist, will not only 

 serve to introduce him to the sponge-fauna of the locality of 

 which it treats, but induce him to pursue the subject still 

 further. If I have succeeded in doing this I shall be 

 satisfied, for my sole object, like that of the generosity of Mr. 

 Wilson, has been to advance our knowledge of this branch 

 of natural history to the best of my ability. Wlien we 

 consider that, for this purpose, these sponges were at his own 

 cost dredged by Mr. Wilson, numbered, and at the same time 

 placed by him in a galvanized-iron vessel containing spirit, 

 and the vessel with its contents hermetically sealed and 

 forwarded to my address with a catalogue of the colour of 

 the specimens respectively in accordance with their numbers 

 and with their depths — while we (Mr. Wilson and myself) 

 are totally unacquainted with each other personally, and I 

 fear nov7 (at my age) will never be otherwise — it must be 

 admitted that, in a scientific point of view, there never was a 

 more praiseworthy or disinterested act. 



It must not be expected that the forms presented by the 

 specimens are the only ones that may be assumed by the 

 various species, for among the Spongida these are almost 

 endless ; but the elementary structure is persistent^ and it is 

 towards this for recognition that the student should direct his 

 attention, since in this he will not be disappointed. A single 

 fragment may afford this information, while to say what forms 

 a sponge may assume in its adult state may require years of 

 observation and an unlimited number of specimens. 



I began the description of tliese sponges with, among other 

 things, the fact that the inhalant or pore-areas miglit open 

 directly into excretory canals, and thus the nutritive particles 

 which passed into them with the water have to be deflected 

 afterwards to the ampullaceous sacs or elsewhere where they 

 were required ('Annals,' 1885, vol. xv. p. 117 &c. pi. iv. 

 fig. 5 &c.) ; and in Phloeodictyon hirotuliferum^ which I have 

 described and illustrated 5M^;ra (p. 447, Pl.X. figs.4and5), this 

 "mode of circulation " has been established by there being no 

 canals at all present, in short nothing between the pore-areas 



