THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOUKTH SERIES.] 



" per litora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circiim vitreos conaidite fontes: 

 Pollice virgineo teneros hio carpite flores : 

 Ploribus et pictiun, divaa, replete caniatrum. 

 At T08, o Nymphse Craterides, ite sub undas; 

 Ite, recurvato variata eorallii trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Deaa pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



If. Parthenii Giannet/aiii Eel. 1. 



No. 37. JANUARY 1871. 



I. — A DescriiJtive 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 rpdyoi,. 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 " Pachytragife " I would include for the 

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

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

 thyad£e and Sphajrospongia 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 Tethya lyncurium is a type, together with its repent 

 or incrusting allies, should not be grouped together with 

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

 " Sphffirospongia," 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. ds Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Fb?. vii. 1 



