288 Mr. H. J. Carter on a new Species of Sponge. 



Loc. Port Phillip Heads, south coast of Australia. 



Ohs. This specimen I omitted to notice in my *' Supple- 

 ment " to the descriptions of Mr. Wilson's sponges (' Annals/ 

 1886, vol. xviii. p. 271 &c.), as I had not time then to exa- 

 mine it before sending it with the rest of these sponges to the 

 British Museum, so left it in an undetermined state, suggesting 

 that it might be a " Synascidian." On going over the speci- 

 mens at the museum, however, Mr. Ridley noticed that it was 

 not a Synascidian but a sponge, and therefore sent it back to 

 me for further examination, whence the above description, in 

 which it is shown to be one of my order " Carnosa," or 

 fleshy sponges, viz. a Chondrosia. 



It diiters from Schmidt's Ch. pleheja {' Spongien Kiiste von 

 Algier,' p. 1) notwithstanding the presence of foreign mate- 

 rial, and from Dr. Lendenfeld's Ch. Bamsm/i (Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. N. S. Wales, vol. x. pt. 1, p. 147, pi. iii.), as may be 

 seen by comparing the descriptions respectively. At the 

 same time all these species appear to me to be so nearly allied 

 that it is difficult to say how far their differences are of any 

 real specific value. It has been designated '''■ spurca'''' on 

 account of its uncleanly habit of enclosing marine detritus of 

 every kind in its way, and to such an extent as to amount to 

 much more in the present instance than half the bulk of the 

 specimen itself. If I might be allowed to compare the " glary 

 bodies" in this species to anything in the vegetable kingdom 

 it would be to the chlorophyll-cells in plants. 



P.S. — I have just found out from a preparation mounted 

 in glycerine that the specimen to which I have alluded in my 

 description of ''^ Halisarca reticulata " (" Supplement," /. c. 

 p. 274) as being charged towards the base with " small ova " 

 is also charged throughout with the '' glary bodies " under- 

 going multiplication, similar to those of Chondrosia spurca^ 

 and that they are so thickly congregated around the inter- 

 stices of the fibro-reticulation of the surface as to constitute 

 a distinctive character, which is continued inwardly along 

 the surface of the canals opening through these interstices 

 respectively ; hence it becomes still more evident that this 

 form will have to be made the type of a new species or genus, 

 as I suggested in the concluding part of the description of 

 ^^Halisarca reticulata " to which I have referred. 



