104 Mr. H. J. Carter’s Contributions to our 
of the fasciculated fibre in a truncate-like condition (fig. 1, @), 
or, in the Australian specimens, nodular instead of monticular 
elevations, &c. (fig. 1,a,6). Pores not seen. Vents scat- 
tered here and there in the dermal sarcode (fig. 1,aa). In- 
ternal structure cellulo-cavernous in the Ceylon species, more 
compact in the Australian ones. Dermal sarcode fibrous 
below, charged abundantly with purple pigment-cells above, 
which also extend throughout the sarcode, but do not enter 
into the composition of the horny fibre. Pigmental cells now 
(in the dried state) compressed and oval, but more inflated 
and globular, probably, when fresh, consisting of a transparent 
colourless (?) cell-wall containing several spherical granules 
which are opaque and purple in colour, together with a 
nucleus (figs. 1,4, and 3,a); the whole frequently burst 
and the purple granules let free into the sarcode, where some 
at least seem to grow into forms respectively like that of the 
parent. Horny fibre scanty, not simply cylindrical although 
branched, but composed of a plurality of more or less imper- 
fectly formed fibrils fasciculated longitudinally so as to present 
an irregularly fluted surface (fig. 1,4), the whole together 
possessing in the transverse section (fig. 1, 7) an irregularly 
crenulated figure, agate-like in the linear outline of the horny 
lamine, which therefore do not always completely encircle 
the granular axis of the fibril to which they belong, although 
this substance occupies their-concavities respectively ; also, 
in the Ceylon or Trincomalee specimen, a great number of 
amber-coloured “ horn-cells,”” whose composition and grada- 
tional growth longitudinally would appear to indicate that 
from such the fibre originated (fig. 1,g). Size of specimen 
from Trincomalee (which is pyramidal and compressed in 
shape, with a kind of shoulder in the form of another pyrami- 
dal lobe on one side) 5 inches high, with a base 5 inches lone 
and 2 inches thick; that of the largest Australian specimen 
(for there are two, massive and irregular in form) 4 inches long, 
2 inches broad, and 12 inch high. (Pl. LX. fig. 1 represents 
the upper half only of the Ceylon specimen, natural size.) 
Hab. Sea-bottom on hard surfaces. 
Loc. Coast of Ceylon and 8.W. Australia. 
Obs. As the full-grown specimens of a sponge frequently 
differ in form, so the Ceylon specimens of the species are 
cactiform on the surface and cellulo-cavernous in the interior, 
while the Australian ones are nodular on the surface and more 
compact internally. How far the doughy compactness of the 
latter may arise from partial decomposition and drying after- 
wards, 1 am unable to state, for the cerues being filled 
with sand, appear to have been washed about in the waves 
