57 



New Species*. 



Stelletta australiensis , Crtr. (PL XIV. fig, 2, a-h.) 



This is a gigantic specimen, stated in my " Notes " to be 

 12 inches high, 7\ inches broad, and 3 inches thick at the 

 base, from which it diminishes in size upwards so as to become 

 linguiform. The surface is even, but much worn away in 



* In the measurements of the spicules the average of the largest is 

 taken; but it should always be remembered that spicules, in this matter 

 like every tiling else, grow from small to large, and therefore that, in the 

 sponge, which is a congeries of individuals formed by successive additions 

 of new structure, there may be many small as well as large spicules ; ilso 

 that the length is not always in proportion to the thickn , so that among 

 the average large spicules some may be longer and thinner while others 

 are shorter and thicker ; lastly, not only the size but the form also of the 

 spicules m specimens of the same species may slightly differ. Hence a 

 wide margin should be allowed for all this ; while our chief object should 

 be to find out and delineate that spiculation which is normally represen- 

 tative of the species. 





350 Mr. H. J. Carter's Contributions to our 



among a collection of sponges made by Dr. J. Anderson, 

 F.E.S. &c, around King's Island, on the coast of Burmah ; but 

 largest of all in a specimen from the south coast of Australia, 

 in the Bowerbank general collection at the British Museum, 

 in which it is fusiform, straight, microspined, and 11 by 

 2£-6000ths of an inch in its greatest dimensions (fig. 3, d 



and f) . 



As a typical form of " Subsection 2, a," I might instance 

 Stelletta euastrum, Sdt, of which the description, illustrated in 

 detail, was published in 1880 ( l Annals,' vol. vi. pp. 135-7, 

 pi. vii. fig. 41, a-l, and 42, a, c). S. discophora, besides livin 

 in the Adriatic, was dredged by SavilleKent on the N.W. coast 

 of Spain and Portugal (no.^21,reg. no. 72. 5. 4, Kent collec- 

 tion, British Museum) ; and type specimens of this and S. 

 mamillaris, Sdt.), also from the Adriatic, may be found among 

 Schmidt's slides of the Adriatic sponges in the British Mu- 

 seum, under nos. 15 and 16 respectively. 



Lastly, in the division "&" of the same " Subsection 

 come the two species to be described hereafter under the names 

 of Stelletta reticulata and S. globostellata respectively, in 

 which the crust from its thickness, resembles that of Geodia, 

 and its spicule that of the large globostellate in Donatia lyn- 

 curium. 



- The shallow-water British species of Stelletta are Ecionemia 

 ponderosa, ~Bk. y = Stelletta aspera, Crtr., Stelletta lactea, Crtr.j 

 and S. Grubiij Sdt., all of which I have found on the rocks 

 of the seashore about this place (Budleigh-Salterton). 





