94 Mr. H. J. Carter on the 



crumbling. Skeleton-spicule curved, fusiform, abruptly sharp- 

 pointed, smooth, sometimes inflated in the centre. Statoblast 

 globular ; aperture infundibular ; crust thick, composed of 

 granular microcell-substance charged with birotulate spicules 

 consisting of a straight shaft somewhat inflated in the centre, 

 terminated at each end by an umbonate disk of equal size, 

 whose margin is irregularly crenulo-denticulate, and whose 

 surface is granulated towards the circumference often in lines 

 running towards the centre, mixed with faint radiating lines 

 generally coming from that point, arranged perpendicularly, 

 with one disk resting on the chitinous coat and the other 

 forming part of the surface of the statoblast. 



Loc. Lake Hindmarsh, Victoria, Australia, lat. 35° 30' S., 

 long. 141° 40' E. 



6. Meyenia plumosa. (PL V. fig. 6, a-k.) 



SpongiUa jdumosa, Carter, No. 12, p. 85; No. 20, p. 11, pi. xxxviii. 

 fig. 5. 



Massive, lobate. Structure feathery, fibrous, friable. Colour 

 greenish or light brown. Skeleton-spicule curved, fusiform, 

 gradually sharp-pointed, smooth. Flesh-spicule stelliform, 

 consisting of a variable number of arms of various lengths 

 radiating from a large, smooth, globular body ; arms spined 

 throughout ; spines longest at the ends, so as to present a capi- 

 tate appearance, and recurved generally (fig. 6, k) ; the whole 

 varying from a simple, spinous, linear spicule to the stellate 

 form first mentioned, thus modified by the size and presence 

 of the globular inflation and number of arms developed from 

 the centre of the former ; abundant in all parts of the structure, 

 but especially in the neighbourhood of the statoblasts. Stato- 

 blast ellipsoidal (fig. 6) ; aperture lateral, infundibular (fig. 6,/); 

 crust, which is thick and composed of granular microcell- 

 substance (fig. 6, d), charged with birotulate spicules (fig. 6, e) 

 consisting of a long, straight, sparsely spiniferous shaft whose 

 spines are large, conical, and perpendicular, terminated at each 

 end by an umbonate disk of equal size, whose margin is irre- 

 gularly denticulated, with the processes more or less turned 

 inwards (fig. 6, A, «), arranged perpendicularly, with one disk 

 resting on the chitinous coat and the other forming part of the 

 surface of the crust (fig. 6, e). 

 Loc. Bombay. 



Ohs. The variety in the minute spiculation generally of 

 this species renders it perhaps the most beautiful in this re- 

 spect that has yet been discovered. 



