Mr. H. J. Carter on new Sponges. 109 
Hab. Marine. 
Loc. South Australia, [lawarra, &c. 
Obs. This sponge is described from the washed-out skeleton, 
of which there appear to have been a great number of speci- 
mens on the south coast of Australia, most of which, I sup- 
pose, have now been picked up for preservation. I have 
placed them in the fourth group of the Psammonemata, viz. 
the Callhistia, on account of their beautiful texture; but, like 
most of the groups in the family of Hircinida, they all have 
the same kind of psammonematous fibre, differing only in its 
amount, the rigidity of the fibre itself, its peculiar structure, 
and the general form of the specimen; how many of which 
may be varied forms of the same species I am unable to state, 
as almost the whole family have been grouped together from 
the skeletons alone, which form a great part of the collection 
in the British Museum, and appear to have been chiefly ob- 
tained from the south coast of Australia. Thus, much here 
being empiric, much will have to be supplied hereafter before 
the Hircinida can be satisfactorily distinguished and classified. 
Meanwhile this form furnishes a typical example of the group 
Callhistia, promised in the third part of my “ Notes,” &c. 
There are several specimens of Taonura in the British Museum 
which bear my running number 46, registered 44. 9. 13. 3, 
6, 7, 4, and 13, which apparently were collected by Mr. J. B. 
Jukes. 
Order IV. RHAPHIDONEMATA. 
Fam. 1. Chalinida. 
Group 2. PALMATA. 
Chalina palmata, Crtr. 3 
(= Halichondria palmata, Johnst., = TIsodictya palmata, Bk.) 
The palmate form of this sponge, being often like a hand 
(whence the name “ Mermaid’s Glove” in Shetland at the 
present day), has caused it to be recognized for nearly a cen- 
tury, commencing with Ellis and Solander’s illustration in 
1786 (Nat. Hist. of Zoophytes, p. 189, tab. lviii. fig. 6), desig- 
nated Spongia palmata. Finally, after having received many 
different names, Dr. Bowerbank, in 1866, placed it in his 
genus Isodictya (Mon. Brit. Spong. vol. ii. p. 311), and in 1874 
gave a figure of it under the form of the “‘ Mermaid’s Glove ” 
and the name Lsodictya palmata (ib. vol. iii. pl. lii.), having made 
_ the following observation in his earlier deseription (/.c.), viz:— 
““his sponge is, I believe, the Mermaid’s Glove of the 
