Mr. H. J. Carter on new Sponges. 113 
than long, subelliptical: transversely, thick, sometimes sub- 
pyriform by proliferous growth ; round on the free edge, be- 
coming contracted and stipitate on the other. Consistence 
firm, resilient. Colour now light yellowish grey. Surface on 
both sides even for the most part, but sometimes proliferously 
lobed, as above stated. Vents large, confined to the margin, 
arranged irregularly in one or two lines, Pandean-pipe-like, or 
on the prominent parts of the lobes when there are any ; 
raised round the orifice, and presenting the remains apparently 
of a fringe. Structure fibro-reticulate ; fibre kerato-spiculife- 
rous, with the vertical lines most pronounced, traversed by 
the excretory canals, which, radiating from the stem upwards, 
end in the large vents on the margin. Spicules of two kinds, 
viz. :—1, skeletal, acerate, fusiform, curved, gradually sharp- 
pointed at each end, smooth, 89 by 54-6000ths inch in its 
greatest dimensions ; 2, flesh-spicule, equianchorate navicult- 
form, about 6-6000ths inch long ; the former chiefly confined 
to the fibre, and the latter plentifully distributed throughout 
the sarcode. Size variable according to the specimen, say 6 
inches broad and 4 inches high without the stem; 4 to 1 inch 
in thickness ; stem thick, compact, and stout. 
Hab. Marine. 
Loc. ?Algoa Bay. 
Obs. While the other structures and spiculation are the 
same as in Chalina palmata, the equianchorate differs in 
not being bent upon itself and in the absence of the peculiar 
bifurcation at the end of the anterior or petaloid arm. Again, 
while the anchorate in Chalina compressa represents, as it 
were, a canoe cut entirely down to the keel in its middle 
third, which would thus represent the shaft only, that of Cha- 
lina palmata is, as it were, alate on each side of the keel 
(fig. 1, a). One of the specimens (for there are several) evi- 
dently presents the remains of a raised and apparently fringed 
border round the vents, which tends to identify it with 
Esper’s Spongia compressa, if not also with the Spongia tubu- 
losa of Pallas (Elench. Zoophytorum, no. 229, p. 383), al- 
though the other specimens are so rounded by attrition that, if 
there was any thing of this kind, it is all washed off. ‘The 
raised pustular margin round the vents is also a feature of 
Chalina palmata (see Johnston, p. 93, pl. i. figs. 1 and 4, 
also Ellis and Solander, p. 189, tab. lvui. fig. 6). As to 
colour, it might have originally been brown or amber, instead 
of grey (as the specimens now are) ; but this is the case with 
those of Chalina palmata under similar circumstances, viz. 
after having been exposed to the action of the surf, as the 
amber-colour of the ‘‘ Mermaid’s-Glove”’ in the Bowerbank 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. x. 8 
