166 Mr. H. J. Carter on Parasites of the Spongida. 



ciallj in the Hircinice (Hirciniosa, 3rd Group, 'Annals/ I. c. 

 p. 136), may, like the seaweed Thamnoclonium jiahelliforme^ 

 become a pseudomorph of the sponge it attacks, so as to be 

 mistaken for the sponge itself, as will presently appear. 



In 1859 (Archiv f. Anat. u. Phys. Heft iii. p. 369, pi. x. 

 fig. 2), Lieberkiihn considered this filament to be a character 

 of certain Hircimce, which he called " Filifera ;" and in 

 1862, Schmidt (Spong. Adriat. Meeres, p. 30) accepted the 

 character and proposed for the genus the following dia- 

 gnosis : — 



" Ceraospongia3 duplici fibraruta genere prseditae, uno crassiorum, 

 quae inter se cohserentes sceletum proprie formant, altero subtilis- 

 simarum, quee ex illis provenientes minutissimis capitulis termi- 

 nantur et inter se non implicantur." 



According to Schmidt [op. et loc. ctt.), it was observed by 

 Esper, who likened it to " wool ;" but neither Esper nor 

 Nardo made it a " character " of Hircinia. 



In 1845 ('Annals,' vol. xvi. p. 407, pi. xiv. figs. 1-5) Dr. 

 Bowerbank represented it as a " most remarkable character " in 

 his genus Stemmatumema • and in 1864, Duchassaingde Font- 

 bressin and (Jr. Michelotti partly founded their genus " Polt/- 

 therses " upon this parasite, which they describe as " monili- 

 forme," and figure with transverse septa^ like the filament of 

 an Oscillatorium (" Spongiaires de la Mer Caraibe," I. c. pi. i. 

 F, and pi. xii. fig. 5, &c. species). 



In 1871 ('Annals,' vol. viii. p. 330) I stated that this fila- 

 ment was an Alga, and probably an Oscillatorium^ which, 

 from its frequently infesting sponges of different kinds in all 

 quarters of the globe, I proposed to name " Spongiophaga 

 communis]'''' further, it was then stated that " Schmidt (1862, 

 Spong. Adriat. Meeres, and especially with figures in 1864, 

 1st supplement), after having given a great deal of attention 

 to these filaments, Avhich have a cell at one end and a spiral 

 twist throughout, admits that they are different from the 

 sponge-cell 7:'rtr excellence {i. e. the sponge-animal) , and, after 

 alluding to Kolliker's doubt in 1866, viz. whether it be a part 

 of the sponge or a parasite, agrees in 1870 (Atlantisch. 

 Spongienf.) with Kolliker, that the two structures, viz. the 

 sponge-fibre and the fibrilla, are different, finally ending with 

 the expression that, after much trouble, he can state nothing 

 further respecting the nature of the latter." 



To this may be added Schmidt's opinion in 1878, at least, 

 in a paper entitled '' Die Fibrillen der Spongiengattung, Fili- 

 fera, Lkhn.," of which he kindly sent me a copy in May last, 

 viz. " Meine Angabe, dass die Fibrillen von Hornfasern ent- 



