112 Mr. H. J. Carter on new Sponges. 
a “fish-hook”-like form, that I have endeavoured to illus- 
trate (‘ Annals,’ 1880, vol. vi. p. 41, pl. iv. fig. 15), but, from 
the minuteness of the object, could not explain. 
Returning to the description of this sponge generally, it 
seems to me that Schmidt has wrongly identified his Renzera 
palmata with the Spongia palmata of Ellis and Solander 
(Spong. Adriatisch. Meeres, p. 74) ; for if we look at their 
representation (op. et loc. cit.) we shall find that it is a 
branched form with prominent pustular vents on the surface, 
which would not have been the case had they been at the ends 
of the branches, as stated in Schmidt’s diagnosis of his Reniera 
palmata, viz. “in extremitate plerumque observatur osculum ;”’ 
for both do not occur together. Besides, the type specimen 
of the latter in the British Museum (no. 75) is soft, fragile, 
and isodictyal, while that of Chalina palmata is tough and 
fibrous, to say nothing of the absence of any flesh-spicule. 
Among Dr. Bowerbank’s general collection of sponges now 
in the British Museum there are several specimens of one 
which, in its structure, spiculation, and colour, although 
not in general form, very much resembles Chalina palmata ; 
but they are so worn down by having been washed about in 
the sandy beach from which they were probably picked up 
for preservation, that, although their general form and struc- 
ture remain, it is difficult to say positively if they origmally 
possessed those fringe-like growths around the vents which 
would conclusively identify them with other specimens of the 
like kind that have been known for many years past. Thus 
Esper represents one, under the name of Spongia compressa 
(tab. lv.), which, but for the “fringes,” seems to be identical 
with that in question; while Ehlers, who in 1870 examined 
Esper’s specimens in the museum at Erlangen with the view 
of identitymg them with Schmidt’s nomenclature, calls it 
“Desmacidon compressa,’ whereby we learn that it has the 
characters assigned by Schmidt to this genus in 1868, viz. a 
network formed of spiculo-fibre, the skeleton-spicule an acerate, 
and the flesh-spicule an equtanchorate (Spong. Kiste Algier, 
p- 11), which are just those of the sponge to which I have 
alluded, and which, but for the wncrumpled form of the navi- 
culiform anchorate, would be those of Chalina palmata ; hence 
I shall now describe it, as far as the specimens will permit, 
under Esper’s specific and my own generic appellation, thus :— 
Chalina compressa, Esper. 
Battledore-shaped, compressed, for the most part broader 
