392 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



The latter I thought I had obtained when I got the deep- 

 sea specimen dredged by H. M.S. ' Porcupine/ at the entrance 

 of the English Channel, which is described and illustrated in 

 the 'Annals' of 1873 (vol. xii. p. 17, pi. i. figs. 1 and 7) ; 

 but being entirely overgrown by the fleshy sponge, Corticium 

 abyssi, it was found, when extricated from this mass, to be 

 entirely devoid of its originally loose spicules, saving some 

 which had become incorporated with the skeletal, glassy fibre 

 itself, among which was the scopuline spicule " Besengabel," 

 represented by Schmidt as partly characteristic of his Farrea 

 facunda (ib. pi. xvi. fig. 6, and Atlantisch. Spongienfauna, 

 '1870, Taf. i. fig. 18). 



Since then, or until the present time, when I received the 

 above-described specimen from Dr. Anderson, which, although 

 dry, has in many parts the dermal sarcode still on, I have 

 not had my attention called to the subject, and hence the 

 absence in this specimen of the " Besengabel " and every 

 other form of scopuline spicule, together with the presence of 

 the clavula, points out to me that it is a Farrea, although 

 not F. facunda — therefore, in all probability, that species 

 from which the skeletal fragments in the detrital root-mass of 

 EuplecteUa cucumer, called by Dr. Bowerbank " Farrea occa" 

 had been derived. It is remarkable, too, if not significant, 

 that the clavula is present without the scopula in Saville 

 Kent's " Aulodictyon WoodwardiV (Monthly Microscop. 

 Journal, Nov. 1870, pi. lxiv. p. 249). 



As I possess, from the root-mass of EuplecteUa cucumer, 

 specimens of all the representations given by Dr. Bowerbank 

 as illustrative of Farrea occa, in his " Monograph of the Sili- 

 ceous Sponges" (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, pi. xxiv. figs. 1-7), 

 and not only that, but am now acquainted with the sponges to 

 which they respectively belong, I can confidently state, that 

 his " fig. 1 " is a fragment of Dendrospongia Steervi, Murie 

 (Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. vol. i. p. 219, tab. 36) ; 

 " figs. 2-6," spicules of the genus Samus, Gray (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1867, p. 526), or, at all events, "4-6;" and "fig. 7," 

 only j belongs to Farrea occa, whose skeletal fibre is smooth 

 and spurred on both sides at the points of intersection of the 

 quadrilateral structure, which, with the spurs a little worn 

 down, I therefore assume to be Farrea occa, as I have before 

 shown that Dr. Anderson's specimen cannot be Farrea 

 facunda on account of the absence of the " Besengabel." 

 Whether the fragments in the root-mass of EuplecteUa cu- 

 cumer did or did not belong to Farrea facunda, there is no 

 evidence to say, and thus I am free to apply the name of 

 u Farrea occa " to Dr. Anderson's specimen. 



