314 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



Hircinia communis, n. sp. 



Specimen massive, lobed, sessile. Consistence soft. Colour, 

 when fresh, " whitish buff," now light grey. Surface cacti- 

 form, uniformly covered with single-pointed conuli, which are 

 comparatively prominent, averaging 3-16ths in. apart and 

 about the same in height, held together by a soft, glutinous 

 dermis which is permeated b}' an equally soft, fibrous, branch- 

 ing reticulation, without foreign objects. Pores in the sarcode 

 tympanizing the interstices of the dermal reticulation. Vents 

 scattered irregularly over the surface. Fibre sand-cored and 

 simply keratose ; the former, which is vertical and axiates 

 the conuli, large and coarse, the latter, which is lateral, scanty, 

 tympanized in its massive reticulated structure by the sarcode 

 of the parenchyma, which, together with that of the dermis, 

 shrinks up when dried to the consistence of hard glue. Size 

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

 dimensions. 



Hab. Marine. 



Loc. Port Phillip Heads, South Australia. Depth 20 fath. 



Obs. The scantiness of the fibre, soft, thick, glutinous 

 nature of the sarcode, which is chiefly permeated throughout 

 by the equally soft fibro-reticulation that characterizes the 

 dermis, and large cancellation of the parenchyma, cause this 

 species, on drying, to shrink up into a brown corneous mass, 

 which not only obscures the structure generally, but brings 

 the vertical sand-cored filaments into such close proximity as 

 to give them an unnatural predominance ; thus altogether ren- 

 dering the dried fragment so different from the spirit- preserved 

 specimen in its wet state, that one never could be understood 

 by the other if studied separately. It is this kind of Hircinia 

 which appears to me to be subject beyond all others to that 

 transformation which is produced by the presence of Spongio- 

 phaga communis. 



Hircinia pulehra, n. sp. 



Specimen wet. Consisting of several erect, subcylindrical, 

 unbranched processes of different sizes, more or less united 

 together laterally ; compressed in the centre, becoming cylin- 

 drical towards the free end, which is obtusely pointed ; all 

 rising from a single contracted stem. Consistence firm, resi- 

 lient. Colour, when fresh, " grey with purple tint," now all 

 grey. Surface uniformly covered with small monticular 

 conuli about 5-8ths in. apart and about the same in height, 

 held together by a strong development of branched, reticulated, 

 simple, keratose fibre supporting the dermal membrane, in 



