18 Mr. H. J. Carter on the 



of all the other authors mentioned but Hackel, who, instead of 

 an equilateral triradiate with straight arms, obtusely pointed, 

 has given one with undulating rays, which are inflated at 

 the ends (o;;. cit. vol. ii. p. 36, Atlas, Taf. v. figs. Sd-f). 

 Now had Hackel offered any explanation of this with re- 

 ference to Schmidt's original announcement, one could have 

 understood the discrepancy ; but he neither refers to Schmidt's 

 characteristic figure of the spicule of Grantia clathrus {I. c), 

 nor does he use the specimens which Schmidt gave hinii 

 1868 {ojy. cit. voh ii. p. 32), but gives the result of his exami- 

 nation of those which he himself found in the spring of 1871 

 on the coast of the island of Lesina, in the Adriatic Sea, as 

 typical of Ascetta clathrus [ib. p. 33). Thus we have to 

 choose between Schmidt's published figure of his oicn speci- 

 men in 1864 and Htickel's of his own in 1872, in which 

 dilemma it is evident that the latter could not have been 

 Grantia clathrus, and therefore that Hackel had no reasonable 

 grounds for making it so. Hence the species at Budleigh- 

 Salterton, being the original Spongia coriacea of Montagu, 

 must be viewed as Schmidt's Grantia clathrus of 1864, and 

 not as Hackel's Ascetta clathrus oi 1872; while as Gray's 

 genus ^'■Clathrina^^ is founded on Clathrina sulphurea^^ 

 Schmidt's Grantia clathrus, which, again, is equal to Leuco- 

 solenia coriacea, Bk., and occurs here, as elsewhere, occasion- 

 ally under sulphur-yellow and scarlet colours respectively, we 

 must adopt Bower bank's or Gray's names for the whole ; and 

 as that of the latter is most expressive of the anastomosing 

 tubular structure of Spongia coriacea, Mont., while it does 

 not indicate any particular colour or contain any other diffe- 

 rent structure, such as Leucosolenia hotryoides, Bk., which is 

 simply branched ('Die Kalkschwiimme,' Atlas, Taf. ix. 

 fig. 10), it is evident that " 67a?/i!yi'?ia " is the most preferable, 

 as the original generic name of Montagu, viz. ^^tSpongia^^ 

 must necessarily be changed by some one. 



Of all the sponges growing on the rocks here that I have 

 seen, no species is more strikingly beautiful than Montagu's 

 Sr>ongia coriacea, which, when fresh and extending over an 

 area of about four square inches, presents itself under the form 

 of a reticulated structure of an icy-white colour, in which the 

 reticulation is only just visible to the naked eye, but, when 

 magnified, contrasts favourably, as it veils the dark rock 

 beneath with the most chaste and exquisite network that could 

 be produced artificially. ISIo representations of it liitherto do 

 it full justice in this respect, least of all those of Johnston and 

 Bowerbank. 



