dredged up from Bass's Straits. 379 



covered with the white incrustation mentioned, in which the 

 vents appear like small pin-holes scattered numerou'^ly over 

 the whole specimen, connected saperficiallj with branched 

 stelliform grooves, which are the collapsed channels of the 

 excretory canal-systems to which they respectively belong. 

 Pores not seen, but, in all probability, in the dermal sarcode 

 supporting the incrustation. Internal structure tough, fibrous , 

 kerataceous. Spicules of two kinds, viz. : — 1, skeleton-, acuate, 

 smooth ; 2, flesh- or echinating spicule, clavate, spined ; the 

 former chiefly confined to the centre of the kerataceous fibre, 

 and the latter echinating its surface, while both combined 

 make up the white incrustation with which the surface is 

 covered. Size variable, under perhaps 18 inches in diameter. 



Hah. Marine. 



Loc. South and S.W. coast of Australia. 



Ohs. This is perhaps the most abundant species on the 

 south coast of Australia ; and my description has been taken 

 from at least a bushel of specimens, but all dry, and there- 

 fore only preliminary to that which may one day be made of 

 this species when in the fresh state or well preserved in abso- 

 lute alcohol, and studied after the satisfactory manner followed 

 by Prof. F. E. Schulze of Gratz. (See " Structure and Ar- 

 rangement of the Soft Parts in Euplectella as'pergillum^'' 

 Voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger,' 1880.) 



Echinonema anclioratum^ n. sp. 



Flat, fan-shaped, thin, more or less stipitate. Like the last 

 species in every thing but form and spiculation, the latter 

 only differing in the presence of a small naviculiform equi- 

 anchorate flesh-spicule. Size variable, under 8 inches in 

 diameter. 



Hah. Marine. ^ Common. 



Loc. South coast of Australia. 



Ohs. The presence of the equianchorate, together with the 

 general form, distinguishes this from the last species ; yet I 

 have seen some specimens with round cylindrical stalks, like 

 those of E. typicum^ also charged with this little navicular 

 form of equianchorate, which is the same as that of the Micro- 

 cionina ; so its presence or absence, probably, in the Ectyo- 

 nida does not go for much in specific determination. 



I have given descriptions of these two species, not only 

 because the former is among the specimens dredged by Capt. 

 Warren, but because I have alluded to this type by name only 

 in my " Notes Introductory to a Study of the Spongida " ('An- 

 nals,' 1875, vol. xvi. p. 195), as promised in the " third part " 



