284 
Mr. H. J. Carter’s Contributions 
XXXIII.— Contributions to our Knowledge of the Spongida. 
By H. J. Carter, F.R.S. &c. 
[Plates XXV. -XXVII.] 
The following contributions to our knowledge of the Spongida 
consist of more or less illustrated descriptions of nineteen new 
species taken from one wet and eighteen dry specimens, toge¬ 
ther with the types of two new groups of flesh-spicules (viz. 
Spinispirula and iSceptrella) and a few of their varieties re¬ 
spectively. 
Although the spiculation in most instances is exquisitely 
beautiful, as may be seen by the representations in the Plates, 
yet the soft parts of only one species, viz. Axos spinipoculum , 
from Australia, which was taken alive and immediately put 
into preservative fluid, have admitted description and delinea¬ 
tion, whereby, however, not only features of unusual interest 
have been elucidated, but additional testimony afforded of 
how much more is to be gained by dissecting a specimen in 
this condition than after desiccation. 
As regards the measurement of sponge-spicules, it should 
be remembered that they must be small before they can be 
large, and that therefore, as they are successively developed, 
there must be all sizes present; further, that the spicule 
generally loses in length what it gains in thickness, so that, 
in the matured forms, the thicker are shorter than the more 
slender ones ; and, lastly, that the maximum size may differ 
with the specimen. Hence my measurements are taken 
from the average largest size in all respects of the specimen 
examined, and therefore can only be considered approxi¬ 
mative. 
In the matter of form, too, the terms u gradually ” and 
11 abruptly,” applied to the pointing of the spicule, mean that 
in the former case it is gradual and in the latter sudden. 
Holorhaphidota, Cart. 
Family 2. Suberitida, Cart. 
Genus Axos, Gray (1867). 
In 1864 Dr. Bowerbank (Mon. Brit. Spongiadm, vol. i. 
pi. x. fig. 197) gave a representation of a spicule which, at 
p. 260 (ib.), is stated to have come from a u very beautiful 
branching sponge from Nicol Bay, Australia,” sent to him 
by Mr. George Clifton of Freemantle. To this sponge Dr. 
Gray, in 1867 (Proc. Zool. Soc. May 9, p. 546), gave the 
name of Axos Cliftoni , together with a short description of 
