1881.] THE SURVEY OF H. M.S. 'alert.' 129 



species. The skeleton, however, is less regularly rectangular ; and 

 the primary fibres appear to project but little. 



VioA CARTERi, sp. n. (Plate XI. fig. 2.) 



Sponge composed of irregularly ramifying vesicular masses, lining 

 similarly shaped perforations in solid bodies. Body-wall and mem- 

 branes thin, carrying felted or fasciculated aggregations of the 

 skeleton-spicule. Vents scattered, papillary. Colour (in spirit) 

 vivid crimson. Skeleton-spicule smooth, stout, spinulate, slightly 

 curved, tapering to point ; head spherical, exceeding the body in 

 diameter ; length •394 millim., breadth of body '01 52 milHm. Flesh- 

 spicules scattered, numerous, spiro-spinular {i. e. elongated, spiral, 

 spined), the curves deep, alternately angular and convex; spines long 

 and slender; length -0412 millim., breadth (without spines) •00127 

 millim. 



Examined. In spirit, and by mountinn; in balsam. 



Hab. Victoria Bank, oflfS. Brazil, lat.^20°42' S., long. .*57°27'W., 

 calcareous rock, nuliipore (?) &c. ; bottom, dead coral; 39 fathoms. 



One specimen (or possibly more in the single mass of rock) repre- 

 sents this species in the collection, spreading iu the interior of a 

 flattish, irregularly excavated, calcareous mass, and appearing in 

 section at the broken edge of the mass, as well as indicating its pre- 

 sence by its various vents scattered over the surfiice ; at these points 

 a dark-crimson central spot is seen, surrounded by a fainter colour, 

 apparently the result of the staining of the surrounding rock by the 

 Sponge. 



External Form and Characters. To the above mav be added that 

 it forms botryoidal irregular deep-lying masses, which ramify irre- 

 gularly to the exterior, by sending out long narrowing tubes which 

 end on the surface in the vents. 



Obs. The coloration of this sponge is exactly the same as that of dry 

 specimens of Vioajohnstoni, Schmidt, or, rather, of the form wrongly 

 described under that name in 1870 by Schmidt (Atl. Geb. p. 5, pi. 

 vi. fig. 18), in which sponge, as in this, the tint is not permanently 

 altered by (he action of potash ; it is almost identical with that of 

 n reputed specimen of Aict/onium jmrpiireum, Lamk., in the national 

 collection referred to by Mr. Carter (Ann. & Mag. N. H. [4] xvi. 

 p. 197). 



The generic name Vioa, put forth in 1833 by Nardo (Isis, 1833, 

 p. 523), for a genus said to be founded on " Alei/oniiim asbestinum, 

 Linn.," and adopted by Schmidt (Spong. adr. Meer.), is here used in 

 preference to Cliona, published in 1^26 by Grant (Edin. New Philos. 

 Journ. i. p. 79) ; for this name, under the form Clione, was already 

 occupied, having been applied in 1 774 by Pallas (Spicilegia Zool. 

 fasc. X. p. 28) to a genus of Pteropodous Moilusca. 



By the specific name the Sponge is dedicated to Mr. II. J. Carter, 

 whose work in this difficult genus has done so much to elucidate its 

 anatomy and determine its systematic position, and to whose assist- 

 ance in my work among the British-Museum sponges I am so much 

 indebted, 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1881, No. IX. 9 



