288 Mr. n. J. Carter on some Weat-Indian 



towards tlie circumference ; sarcode deeply coloured by an 

 abundance of ditfiised ])igment, presenting- an aniarantliine or 

 red-purple hue. Spicule of one kind only, viz. acerate, small, 

 thin, smooth, cylindrical or subfusiform, slightly curved, and 

 sometimes indistinctly inflated at the ends, about 50 by 

 ■|-6000th inch in its greatest dimensions (PL XI. fig. 15), 

 chiefly confined, to the fibre, which, with a minimum of kera- 

 sine, is composed of them, and in a looser way dispersed 

 throughout tlie sarcode. Length of main stem in the largest 

 specimen about 21 inches, breadth 1 by | inch in diameter. 



Hah. Marine. Adhering to any object with which it may 

 come into contact. 



Log. Nassau. 



Ohs. Such are the characlcrs of this species, which are so 

 like tliose of de F. et M.'s Plwrhas amaranthus that I have 

 described it under their name. In colour and structure it is 

 so much like Halichondria hirotulata, Higgin, from the same 

 neighbourhood, that nothing but a microscopic examination 

 of the respective spiculations can reveal the ditierences ; and 

 notwithstanding tlie extreme likeness to it of the sponges which, 

 in my Supl)lementary ]\Ianaar Report, I have named Axos 

 anchorata and A.Jilndata, especially in the extreme irregu- 

 larity of their growth {' Annals, 1881, vol. vii. pp. 382, 383, 

 pi. xviii. figs. 3 &c.), I now think the whole should be rele- 

 gated to the group Ilalichondrina ; for the light which a 

 general examination of the good specimens of Phorhas amaran- 

 thus from the West Indies has thrown on that of the " im- 

 perfect specimens " from S. Australia, above mentioned, not 

 only ])roves to me that the latter belong to the same group as 

 Pliorhas amaranthus^ but that they should be withdrawn from 

 the genus Axos, and their generic name changed to 

 " Phorhas.^'' As Halicliondria hirotuJata^ Higgin, which is 

 found with Phorbas amarantMis in the West-Indian seas, is 

 also largely developed on the south coast of Australia, it is 

 not improbable that the latter exists there also in addition to 

 AivoSj now Pliorhas anchorata and P. jihulata^ already de- 

 scribed from thence {op, et loo. cit.) . 



Group 8. Es PER IN A. 

 Although the name " Ei^peria " originated with Nardo 

 (' Isis,' 1833), it was Dr. Oscar Schmidt who first defined 

 it satisfactorily, in 1862 (Spongf. Adriat. Meeres, S. 53), 

 adding just previously the literature of the subject, to which 

 I cannot do better than refer the reader for every thing else in 

 this respect. Having already taken the appellation for the 

 basis of my group " Esperina " (' Annals,' 1875, vol. xvi. 



