114 Mr. H.J. Carter orc 



pointed, but often absolutely round or blunt, 75 by l|-6000ths 

 in its greatest dimensions ; disposed plentifully throughout 

 the sarcode, more massively than fibrously. Size of largest 

 specimen, of which there are several both wet and dry, 15 in. 

 high by 10x5 in. at the base. 



Hab. Marine. 



Loc. Port Phillip Heads, S. Australia. Depth 19 fath. 



Ohs. This is the species to which I have alluded in the 

 1 Annals ' for 1882 (vol. xi. p. 350) as being " without flesh- 

 spicule," thus differing, among other things, from the speci- 

 men of Alcyonium purpureum } Lam., in the British Museum, 

 which bears the nos. u 42 " and " 29." Like A. purpureum, 

 it retains its beautitul carmine colour after drying, and this is 

 so abundant that, although it parts with sufficient to tinge other 

 sponges which may be in contact with it when preserved in 

 spirit, this in no degree appears to affect its brilliancy on 

 desiccation. I have named it after Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson, 

 who obtained it from the place mentioned, and sent it to me 

 with the other specimens to which I have above alluded, 

 requesting at the same time that, if any new species were 

 found among them, types of the same might be deposited in 

 the British Museum, where the " largest specimen," whose 

 measurements are above given, together with two others, may 

 be found, bearing the Register nos. " 84. 10. 10. 3-5." The 

 habit of enclosing foreign microscopic objects is so common 

 with the Suberites that it is almost a character. 



AcantJiella cactiformis, n. sp. (PI. IV. fig. 6, a, b.) 



Specimen dry. Erect, flat-branched, stipitate, thorny, 

 cactus-like; stem and branches much compressed, interuniting 

 as they divide, so as to leave large, fenestral intervals. Con- 

 sistence firm, chiefly from the thick, gluey character of the 

 sarcode when dry, together with the density of the stems. 

 Colour when fresh " dull red," now grey in the spirit- 

 preserved specimen (for there are two), horny brown in the 

 dry one. Surface of the larger branches covered with thorny 

 processes, which, by branching, grow into proliferous portions 

 like miniature specimens of the whole mass, but whose fenes- 

 tral intervals between the interuniting branches are tympanized 

 by the thick, dermal sarcode, which also webs together the 

 thorn-like bundles of spicules on the surface. Neither pores 

 nor vents seen, probably on account of their having become 

 closed by the contraction of the thick, dermal sarcode during 

 desiccation. Internally, stiucture hard and compact in pro- 

 portion to its distance from the surface; consisting, under the 

 thick, glutinous, brown dermis, of a dense accumulation of 



