374 Mr. H. J. Carter on S])ecimens 



present any of its original features is out of the question. All, 

 therefore, that I can add is that the " brown" specimen in a 

 smaller state appears again attached to Dictyocylindrus reti- 

 culata (to be described hereafter) from the same locality, and 

 charged with the same kind of spherical capsular bodies (? ova), 

 where it so far manifests all the appearance of llalisarca^ that 

 I can hardly doubt that both are dried specimens of one and 

 the same, for which I propose the name above given. Neither 

 becomes gelatinous when soaked in water, although when dry 

 the brown specimen presents here and there the appearance 

 of dried glue, which the dark specimen does not. I admit 

 that this description is not satisfactory ; but under the circum- 

 stances it cannot be otherwise ; at the same time it is desirable 

 that it should be recorded, to induce future observation. 

 Loc. Bass's Straits. 



PSAMMONEMATA. 

 Dysidea KirMi^ Bk., 1841. 



Massive, sessile, more or less contracted at the base, thick, 

 erect, more or less compressed, simple, lobate ; lobes passing 

 into mamilliform, digital, or subbranched processes ; some- 

 times digitate and branched, CliaUna-Wko.. Texture subfragile. 

 Colour, when fresh, pur])lish or grey. Surface even, fibro- 

 reticulate, with the interstices tympanized by the dermal 

 sarcode. Vents terminal, large, situated at the ends of the 

 lobate, mamilliform, or digital processes, which are often in 

 a line on a serrated crest or ridge. Pores in the dermal sar- 

 code. Internal structure fibro-reticulate, traversed by channels 

 of the excretory canal-systems, which terminate in the vents 

 just mentioned ; fibre composed of foreign bodies (quartz- 

 grains, sponge-spicules entire and fragmentary, &c.) held 

 together by a minimum of sarcode in the form of crooked 

 anastomosing threads, whose interstices being also tympanized 

 by sarcode, produce a uniformly areolated tissue, which may 

 be slightly interrupted by a little development in excess of 

 the vertical over the transverse fibre. Size variable; the 

 largest specimen I have seen was about 5. inches long, 4 inches 

 high, and 1^ inch thick. 



Hah. Marine. Growing on hard objects, which, if hollow, 

 frequently have their interior filled with it. 



Loc. The whole coast of South Australia ; Mauritius and 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



Ohs. In the year 1840 " Rupert Kirk, Esq.," of Sydney, 

 Australia, sent to Dr. Bowerbank "about fifty species of various 

 genera of sponges" (Trans. Micr. Soc. Loudon, 1841, vol. i. 



