294 Mr. T. Higgin on some Carihhean Sponges. 



consist of smooth, bent, acerate spicules extending vertically 

 from the base, and connected by secondary lines at various 

 angles, both being echinated with spicules ; while the surface- 

 covering consists of a thick layer of dark-coloured sarcode 

 (shrunk much by drying) , which is thickly strewn with small 

 spined acerates lying in it confusedly in a horizontal position. 

 The smooth acerates are 0-012 inch by 0-00025, and the spined 

 acerates 0-0003 by 0-000143 inch respectively. Thus they 

 are less than half the size of those of H. coralloides. 



Loc. Bantry Bay, Ireland. 



Colour dark brown-red. 



Kespecting the other known species of the genus, Mr. 

 Carter states that " there are several specimens in the British 

 Museum of a sponge which came from Port Elizabeth, in 

 South Africa, that can only be considered a variety oi Higginsia 

 coralloides. They are flabelliform, compressed, clathrous, sti- 

 pitate, composed of branches radiating from a hard stem, 

 which, subdividing, anastomosing, and covered with short 

 erect laminae interuniting interruptedly between themselves, 

 give to the whole a dendriform clathrous aspect. Colour 

 reddish brown-yellow, almost white when washed out. Tex- 

 ture compact, hard. Spicules of two kinds, viz. echinating or 

 flesh-spicule and skeleton or axial. The former small, acerate, 

 and spined throughout ; spines erect. The latter, or larger, of 

 which there are two forms, viz. smooth curved or bent in the 

 centre, acerate and acuate respectively, mixed with long sub- 

 skeleton-spicules of the same form but straighter." 



Higginsia would form a genus of Mr. Carter's group 

 Pluriformia, in the first family of Echinonemata, namely Ec- 

 tyonida. 



Donatia parasitica, n. sp. (PI. XIV. figs. 6-8.) 



When examining H. coralloides for its spicule complement, 

 the presence of globostellate spicules with conical pointed 

 rays, and of smaller stellates with capitate spined rays, was 

 always observed ; and so constantly were these spicules found 

 in greater or less quantity in every part of the sponge exa- 

 mined, that they might have been erroneously grouped with 

 the spicules proper to it, had not Mr. Carter strongly expressed 

 the opinion that they were probably only accidental and 

 would prove to belong to a sponge similar to that noticed by 

 him in connexion with Polytrema on a crab's claw (Ann. & 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. 1870, vol. v. p. 392). A diligent search was 

 therefore made, and the crevices of the nullipore were care- 

 fully examined ; and at length a small laminiform sponge was 

 found, which proved to be the species which had supplied the 



