324 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



temperate Australia would Jbe clad by a luxuriant growth of sea- 

 weeds and sponges, are here almost entirely monopolised by a 

 rank growth of Sarcophytum and its allies. 



An expert in spongology would doubtless reap a rich harvest 

 on these reefs by cracking loose, dead coral blocks and securing 

 those minute forms which hide themselves in numerous crevices. 

 But a superficial survey of the rocks from high water mark to 

 a depth of twenty feet, impresses on the observer that the oft 

 described wealth and profusion of life on a coral strand is not 

 equally true of all classes. The larger sponges, at any rate, con- 

 tribute handsomer, more highly coloured, more numerous and 

 varied forms to a sea-scape in Port Jackson, than they do in the 

 Ellice Islands. 



About low water mark the most conspicuous sponge was, 

 perhaps, the coal-black Euspongia irregularis, var. silicata, growing 

 in cake-shaped masses on the rocks. In similar situations spino- 

 sella glomerata flourished. Among the Sarcophyta, from which, 

 indeed, a casual glance hardly distinguished it, the Hippospongia 

 dura encrusted the rocks. From a depth of thirteen fathoms in the 

 lagoon the dredge came up almost choked with Echinodictyum 

 asperum, with which the urchins Laganum and Maretia were 

 associated. 



Nearer the centre of the lagoon, in about twenty fathoms, were 

 dredged the new Glathria pellicula, encrusting a cluster of cocks- 

 comb oyster. This was only taken on one occasion. 



The Eeniera sp. was extremely plentiful in pools in the man- 

 grove swamp, where alone it was met with. It flourished alike 

 in shade and sunlight. At a distance it sometimes appeared as 

 large rose-pink patches, many yards in extent, creeping under 

 stones and climbing on mangrove roots. When deprived of light 

 the beautiful rose-pink tended, under the shelter of the mangrove, 

 to fade into gray. Each sponge mass attained a height of eight 

 or ten inches, and a diameter of about a foot. In the open the 

 growth was reduced to a prostrate network of tubes." 



Order MONAXONIDJE. 

 FAMILY HOMORRHAPHIDJE. 

 RENIERA AUSTRALIS, Lendenfeld. 



Reniera australis, Lendenfeld, Aust. Mus. Cat. xiii., Sponges, 

 1888, p. 78. 



There are several examples of this species exhibiting con- 

 siderable variation ; one resembles a piece of pumice-stone with 

 numerous crateriform oscula : others have a comparatively smooth 

 surface, with dome-shaped oscula bearing processes, 



