344 
Mr. H. J. Carter’s Contributions 
Ohs. Examined in the dry state. There are now two 
specimens of this sponge in the British Museum, one of which 
is extremely small and insignificant-looking, about H inch in 
diameter, and the other, that above described, which came 
from the late Dr. Bowerbank’s collection. The former bears 
my running number 385, but no other, while the glue about 
its stem shows that it was once attached to a board, and there¬ 
fore has been a very long time in the Museum; the latter, 
which was also without label, now bears my no. 695. The 
hard, dense structure of the stem, combined with the white 
incrustation over the honeycomb or reticulated stiff structure 
of the surface, are all as much characters of the Echinonemata 
as they are opposed to those of the Suberitida in the Holo- 
rhaphidota ; while, if we regard the flesh-spicules as equivalent 
to the 11 echinating” spicules, it seems to me that a place 
for Trachycladus should be sought for in the family Ectyonida, 
among the groups now included under the provisional name 
of Pluriformia. The characters of the sponge above given, 
together with the flesh-spicules, are quite sufficient for recog¬ 
nizing the species. Especially characteristic are the spiral 
flesh-spicules of the incrustation, which, under the microscope, 
look like myriads of little worms broken into pieces. So far, 
hoAvever, as their spiral form goes, this occurs in a sponge of 
a very different kind, viz. Suberites spinispirulifer , to be 
described hereafter ; but here it is not only much larger, but 
a pined all over. 
Amorphina stellifera , n. sp. 
(PI. XXIX. fig. 10, «, b.) 
Massive, amorphous, lobate, pierced and suspended by the 
line branches of the seaweed among which it has grown. 
Colour originally white, but subsequently rendered pink by 
the presence of a pink Palmella-Wke, cell. Texture crumb-of- 
bread-like. Surface even, thickened by the accumulation of 
broken spicules and sand, probably from having been rolled 
about in the shore-waves. Pores in the sarcode tympanizing 
the intervals between the broken spicules, as well as between 
those which have not become broken. Vents in pit-like de¬ 
pressions of the surface. Internal structure consisting of 
areolar sarcode charged with the spicules of the species and 
traversed by the canals of the excretory system^ of a light 
yellow colour. Spicules of two forms, viz.:—1, skeleton-, 
acerate, curved, smooth, sharp-pointed gradually, of various 
sizes, the largest averaging l-35th by l-1500th inch in its 
greatest diameters (PI. XXIX. fig. 10, o) ; 2, flesh-spicule, 
very delicate, stelliform, composed of eight or more micro- 
