THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



" per litora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circum vitreos conaidite fontes: 

 Polliee virgineo teneros hic oarpite flores : 

 Ploribus et pictum, divse, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o NymphsB Crateridea, ite sub undas; 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchaa 

 Ferte, Deee pelagi, et pingui eonchylia aucco." 



iV. Parthenii Giannettasii Eol. 1. 



No. 37. JANUAEY 1871. 



I. — A Descriptive Account of three Pachytragous Sponges 

 growing on the Rocks of the South Coast of Devon. By H. 

 J. Carter, F.R.S. &c. 



[Plate IV.] 



The term applied by Aristotle to those compact sponges which 

 were " very hard and rough," and grew upon the rocks near 

 the shore, was Tpdyoc. Hence the term "pachytragous" in 

 the title of this communication — a word which I should not 

 have introduced had there been any other previously employed 

 to designate generally the order to which the three sponges 

 about to be described belong. 



Under the head of " Pachytragise " I would include for the 

 present all the " Corticatte " of Dr. Oscar Schmidt (Die Spong. 

 Adriat. Meeres, 1862, p. 81) and all those designated Te- 

 thyadge and Spheerospongia respectively by Dr. Gray (" Notes 

 on the Arrangement of Sponges," Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 

 1867, p. 540 &c.)_. 



It may be questioned hereafter how far the chondroid species 

 of which Tetliya lyncurium is a type, together witli its repent 

 or incrusting allies, should not be grouped together with 

 Schmidt's Ghondrilla nucula, &c. ; but as regards the term 

 " Spha^rospongia," of which Pachymatisma Johnstonia is the 

 first example in Dr. Gray's " Notes," recent observations on 

 the habitat of this sponge seem undoubtedly to point out the 

 necessity of its suppression altogether. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. Vii. 1 



