220 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



are irregularly serrated, thickening towards the stem, which 

 is round and truncated (? cut off by the dredge). Consistence 

 soft, resilient, in its wet state. Colour, when fresh, " reddish 

 buff," now grey outside, reddish buff within. Surface 

 covered with a densely poriferous cuticle, beneath which is a 

 thick layer of intercrossing and interuniting curvilinear, soft, 

 fleshy fibre without foreign bodies, which contains the sub- 

 dermal cavities, and which, on the outside, presents a stelli- 

 form pattern, wherein the centres of the stelke correspond to 

 the ends of the fibre internally, which, however, do not come 

 through the dermis. Pores numerous throughout the cuticle. 

 Vents on the processes respectively which form the serration 

 on the sides and upper margin. Internal structure fibro- 

 reticular, consisting of thick arenaceous vertical fibre, enve- 

 loped in an indistinct layer of keratine, interunited by much 

 lateral fibre, chiefly formed of keratine ; the whole con- 

 stituting a massive reticulation whose interstices are filled 

 with pulpy parenchymatous sarcode of a bright orange-yellow 

 colour, very much like that in Holopsamma Iceois &c. Size of 

 specimen 4 in. high by 2 x 1 in. horizontally in its greatest 

 dimensions. 



Ilab. Marine. 



Loc. Port Phillip Heads, South Australia. Depth 3 fath. 



Obs. When dried the surface becomes contracted, corru- 

 gated, and of a dark brown colour from the thickness of the 

 dermal layer, in the midst of which whitish points may be 

 seen, indicating the position of the ends of the arenaceous 

 fibre beneath. The entire form and arrangement of the vents 

 recalls to mind the skeletal specimens of Psammonemata in 

 the British Museum &c, for which, from their fine and delicate 

 structure, I have proposed the name " Callhistia." The 

 species, described and photographed by Hyatt under the 

 name of "Spongelia incerta " (I. c. p. 533, pi. xvi. fig. 32), 

 which came from the same neighbourhood, viz. " Phillip Is.," 

 is very much like the one I have noticed ; and many of his 

 other photographs under the same generic appellation, viz. 

 fig. 13, pi. xv., and figs. 12, 13, 15, and 15 a, pi. xvii., from the 

 same locality also, are very like the fine skeletal specimens in 

 the British Museum, all of which are said to have come from 

 Australia. 



Although the chief distinguishing character for Spongelia 

 which 1 have adopted places it below the remaining groups of 

 Psammonemata in my original classification, it at the same 

 time places it above all those in the family Arenida just men- 

 tioned, so that, belonging to neither, its position is thus 

 indicated, while, to increase the facility of finding it, a family 



