320 Mr. 9. J. Carter on Beep-sea 



Cladorhiza abyssicola and C. corticocancellata differ in the 

 following particulars, viz. : — The former (PI. XIII. fig. 15) 

 is more or less slender and pinnatifid in its branchingj the 

 branches long and attenuatingly pointed, and the cortex con- 

 sisting of long drooping filaments issuing from a thin stratum 

 of sarcode at their base ; while the bihamate or fibula flesh- 

 spicule is simply C-shaped (fig. 15, a). The latter, on the 

 other hand, is irregularly branched, the branches thick, short 

 and tumid towards the free end, and the cortex thick, cancel- 

 lous, and covered with short, erect, spine-like processes around 

 the holes of the surface (fig. 16), while the bihamate or fibula 

 flesh-spicule is an elongated C-shape, whose extremities respec- 

 tively are everted and prolonged into a whip-like form 

 (fig. 16, a). 



Lastly the peculiar form in jar 65, to which I have alluded, 

 is like that of a pinnatifid Gorgonia^ in which the round 

 stem is bordered on each side by long undivided branches, 

 coming off somewhat irregularly on each side, but all opposite 

 or on the same plane. The cortex is uniformly granulated 

 and hirsute, but without filamentous prolongations, and the 

 branches and stem round and of the same size throughout, the 

 former obtusely rounded at the free extremity. In other 

 respects (that is, in colour and the form of its spicules respec- 

 tively, together with the structure of the cortex and stem) it is 

 exactly like G. abyssicola. The specimen is imperfect, inas- 

 much as, both the distal and proximal ends having been 

 broken off, it gives no idea of what the entire form of the 

 sponge was. There are four inches of the stem left, which is 

 -i- inch in diameter, and the longest of the branches, which 

 are irregular in this respect, 2^ inches in length, with a little 

 less transverse diameter than that of the stem. Of its being 

 identical with C. ahi/ssicola in all but form, there can be 

 no doubt ; and the form, although it may constitute a variety, 

 cannot make a distinct species. I have thought it worth 

 while to give a short description *of this specimen, because it 

 has evidently been placed in the jar by itself under the idea 

 that it was a distinct species, and that hereafter it might not 

 be taken for such. 



Schmidt's C. pennatula (Nordsee-Exped. 1872, Spongien, 

 p. 119, Taf. i. figs. 14, 15, and 16) seems to me to be so like 

 C. abyssicola, Sars, that as Schmidt states that Sars's work, 

 wherein the latter is described and illustrated, is not accessible 

 to him, I cannot help thinking that with more opportunities 

 Schmidt would have pronounced his specimen to be identical 

 with that of Sars. Indeed Schmidt himself, a little further 

 on, questions whether the specimens of C. abyssicola, Sars, 



