116 Mr. H. J. Carter on new Sponges. 
culate, fibre almost entirely composed of the spicules of the 
species, glistening, asbestus-like ; traversed by the branches 
of the excretory canal-system, which are very large and 
chiefly end in the vents opening into the bottom of the exca- 
vation. Spicule of one form only, viz. acerate, large, curved, - 
fusiform, sharp-pointed at each end, smooth, about 90 by 6- 
6000ths inch in its greatest dimensions ; chiefly confined to 
the formation of the spiculo-fibre. Size of specimen about 
74 inches in diameter ; excavation 43 inches across the brim, 
and 34 inches deep. 
Hab. Marine. 
Loc. ? Australia (so said by the dealer). 
Obs. This sponge belongs to the first family of my order 
Holorhaphidota, viz. the Renierida, originally made up of the 
genera “Rayneria” and ‘‘Hsperia”’ of Nardo, not Schmidt 
(‘Isis,’ 1833, Spongiarum Classificatio, order 11. p. 519 e¢ seq.), 
under the characters of “ Spongiaria fulcimentis nature sili- 
ceze aculeiformibus, &c.” Influenced by this, Schmidt placed 
both under the genus to which he has given the name of 
“‘Reniera, Nardo,” restricting the spiculation to that of an ace- 
rate form, viz. ‘‘simplicissima et uniformia, nunquam nodosa” 
(Spong. Adriatisch. Meeres, 1862, p. 72 &c.), and using the 
name “Hsperta”’ generically for a totally different kind of 
sponges (2b. p. 53). 
I have divided my family of Renierida into four groups, of 
which typical examples have been given in the key to my 
classification (“Notes ” &c., ‘Annals,’ 1875, vol. xvi. p. 196) ; 
and it is to the last of these, viz. the ‘‘ Crassa,” that I would 
relegate the species above described, viz. Reniera crateri- 
formis, chiefly on account of its spicule being the largest in 
the family and connected with the largest specimens. Thus, 
in the British Museum, no. 492, registered 61. 5. 11. 8, is all 
together 18 inches in diameter and 12 inches high, of which 
the excavation is 13 inches across the brim and 12 inches 
deep, surrounded by a number of minor crateriform cones, 
each of which is as large as a small sponge of this kind; so 
that probably it is one of the largest on record. There are 
two other specimens bearing ridges externally, like that above 
described, viz. one numbered 288, registered 41. 1. 13. 45, 
with “8332” in the corner of the label, and the other 492, 
without any register number; but these with others of the 
like kind, although still large specimens, are not near so large 
as that first mentioned. 
Schmidt's “Reniera? calyx” (Spong. Adriatisch. Meeres, 
1862, p. 76, Taf. vii. fig. 12), of which there is a type speci- 
men in the British Museum no. 81, registered 67. 7. 26. 71, 
