10 Mr. H. J. Carter on new Species of Hydractiniidte. 



Ceratella fusca. 

 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Xov. 26, 1868, p. 579, fig. 2. 

 " Coral expanded, fan-shaped, forming an oblong frond ; 

 branches divergent from the base, with numerous lateral, sub- 

 alternate, subdichotomous branches; similar but smaller lateral 

 branches. 



^''Hab. Australia, New South Wales, at the head of Bondy 

 Bay." 



DeMtella afrm-uhens, 

 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 26, 1868, p. 579, fig. 1. 



" Sponge or coral dichotomously branched, expanded, growing 

 in a large tuft from a broad, tortuous, creeping base, of a dark 

 brown colom-, and uniform hard rigid substance. Stem hard, 

 cylindi-ical, opake, smooth ; branches and branchlets tapering 

 to a point, cylindrical, covered with tufts of projecting homy 

 spines on every side ; those on the branches often placed in 

 sharp-edged, narrow, transverse ridges ; those of the upper 

 branches and branchlets close but isolated, and divergent from 

 the sm-face at nearly right angles. 



"This genus is distinguishable from Ceratellahj the greater 

 thickness and cylindrical form of the stem, by the more tufted 

 and irregular manner of growth, and by the tufts of spicules 

 (oscules or cells) being more abundant and equally dispersed 

 on all sides of the branches and branchlets." 



The above descriptions are copied from Dr. J. E. Gray's 

 excellent accomit of these two organisms, published in the 

 'Proc. Zool. Soc' for November 26, 1868 (p. 575), to which 

 the reader is referred for more extended descriptions of them^ 

 and for equally excellent illustrations, which, being almost 

 typical forms of the following species from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, will, until the latter are also illustrated, very well serve 

 for their identification. 



It will be observed that Dr. Gray was by no means satisfied 

 that they belonged to the Spongiadge, and therefore only pro- 

 visionally placed them among the sponges. Had he been aware 

 of what I have above stated, his views probably would have 

 been different, and the real natm-e of these organisms would 

 have been then told by him at once ; and but for his encou- 

 ragement now, it would most probably have never been eluci- 

 dated by myself. 



Ceratella procumhens^ n. sp. 

 Zoophyte procumbent, compressed, thickly branched on the 

 same plane ; the larger stems chiefly on one (the lower) side, 



