308 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



Spongiophaga communis, for in three of these the whole of the 

 soft parts are transformed into the filaments of this supposed 

 parasite, and in the other two, which are almost exactly like 

 them, the natural sarcode remains intact by it ; the former 

 bear my running- no. ''177" and the latter "547;" but 

 being dry, and therefore much altered in appearance, I am 

 unable to say with certainty that they are specimens of 

 Geelongia vasiformis ; at the same time for descriptive pur- 

 poses it may be observed that they are all smooth internally, 

 but ribbed externally by ridges which extend more or less 

 parallelly although radiatingly from the base to the circum- 

 ference, while they now average 9 in. high by 9 in. across 

 the brim, which is about \ in. thick; so that, when fresh, 

 they must have been very nearly double in all these measure- 

 ments. All are said to have been brought from Australia, 

 and being remarkable in shape have been mounted on wooden 

 stands for exhibition ; thus they are analogous to the great 

 Suberite "Neptune's Q.uyJ^Iihaphiopltora patera, Gray,= 

 Poterion, Harting. 



Abnormally -developed Ova in situ in Geelongia vasiformis. 



In both the specimens of Geelongia vasiformis there are a 

 great number of isolated ova, scattered singly throughout the 

 tissue in distinct cysts of the same shape, so loosely that, on 

 breaking open a cyst, which is firmly attached to the sur- 

 rounding tissue, they fall out in their entirety, when they 

 appear to be in different stages of development, of which the 

 earliest consists of a delicate spherical colourless envelope 

 filled with granuliferous nucleated yelk-cells of a faint yellow 

 colour, averaging 20-6000ths inch in diameter, while the entire 

 envelope, which at this period is very thin and delicate, is 

 about l-20th in. in diameter; and the latest or most ad- 

 vanced development is of a subglobular tuberculated form, 

 rendered more or less irregular by the budding-forth of 

 several short processes, some of which may be once divided. 

 While, however, the contents are the same, the envelope and 

 the processes into which it has been prolonged have become 

 transformed into a keratose laminated structure of an amber 

 colour about 4-6000ths in. thick, having very much the 

 appearance of the laminated keratose fibre of the sponge 

 itself ; thus between these extremes of sphericity and sub- 

 globularity there are ova of every degree of form and colour. 



What the signification of this development may be I am 

 unable to conceive further than that it may be a normal one 

 of the ovum in an abnormal position ; hence, provisionally, I 

 have headed this " Abnormal development of the ovum in 



