Mr. H. J. Carter on Parasites of the Hjiongida. 167 



springen, berulite auf Tausclmng " (pp. 661-2), and, further 

 on, that all attempts to get out an " entire " fibril fail. But 

 it will presently be seen, in the special description of Spongio- 

 pJiaga communis which I am about to give, that this has 

 been accomplished, although probably owing to the specimen 

 being more favourable for the purpose than any possessed by 

 Dr. Schmidt. 



Figures of the filament, so far as it was known, have been 

 given respectively by Lieberkiihn, Bowerbank, Schmidt, and, 

 lastly, by Duchassaing de Fontbressin and Michelotti, whose 

 "moniliform" or septate character, before noticed, partly led 

 me to the idea that it was a species of Oscillator ium^ which 

 further investigation has not confirmed. 



As before stated, this parasite chiefly, but not exclusively, 

 attacks the Hircimce in all quarters of the globe, but becomes 

 most remarkable when it has entirely rej^laced the sarcode in 

 those great bowl-shaped specimens that come from the seas 

 between the two Americas and from the southern coast of Aus- 

 tralia respectively. The specimen represented by Duchassaing 

 and Michelot (/. c), viz. Polytherses campana^ is not an un- 

 common form, wherein the "bowl" has not been completed ; 

 while there are large massive forms also of this species of 

 Hircinia, and some from the neighbourhood of Cuba, which 

 present no filament ; but, lest it should be fancied that these 

 might have belonged to a different species and therefore not 

 to possess the filament, it might be stated that in the British 

 Museum there are some " bowl-shaped " ones from Australia 

 which present nothing but the original sarcode, and others 

 nothing but the filament respectively covering their skeletons, 

 which thus, in each instance, retain the "bowl-shaped" form 

 of the original sponge. 



Besides this, it is abundant in a specimen of Axinella 

 faveolaria^ 8dt. (mihi), three feet long, which came from the 

 Levant, and was presented to the British Museum by Admiral 

 Spratt, also in several specimens oi Reniera fibulata^ Sdt., Espe- 

 ria^ &c., and in one instance even in the excavated chambers 

 of a Cliona in an old piece of stony coral from Cuba, where 

 it is mixed up with the pin-like spicules of the species, which 

 may be seen together with it in the mounted preparation. 



I have not yet observed it in any of the Khaphidonemata — 

 although, on the other hand, the Cavochalinida, ex. gr, Tuha 

 (Duch. de F. et M.), which also chiefly come from the seas 

 between the Americas, are, as before stated, commonly in- 

 fested by the " isolated sunken polyp " or Palythoa. 



Then, again, although it is prevalent in several kinds of 

 the Psammonemata besides Hircinia^ it seems to have almost 



