spoNaiiDA. 385 



8. Stelospongus iutertextus. 

 ? Hyatt, Mem. Bod. Soc. ii. p. 532. 



A fragment of what was probably either a cup-shaped or flabel- 

 late specimen is, perhaps, referable to this species : the structure of 

 the skeleton agrees fairly with Hyatt's description ; at some little 

 distance below the surface the primary skeleton-lines are very stout, 

 viz. "14 miUim. and upwards in diameter, and mostly cored, not 

 coated, by foreign material ; the skeleton is elastic and very com- 

 pressible. 



Hub. Port Jackson, 0-5 fms. 



Distribution. Mauritius ? (Hyatt) ? 



CARTEEISPONGIA. 



Halispongia, Bowerhank, Mon. Brit. Spong. i. p. 207 (nee Be Blain- 



viUe). 

 Carteriospongia, Hyatt, Mem. Bost. Soc. ii. p. 640. 

 Mauricea, Carter, Ann. 8f Mag. N. H. (4) xx. p. 174. 



De BlainvHle founded the genus Halispongia (Man. Actinol. 

 p. 532) to contain a number of sponges, of which the first is Spongia 

 papillaris, Grant (=zEalic}iondria panicea, Johnston), and which 

 are stated in the generic diagnosis to contain siliceous spicules ; 

 therefore Bowerhank is clearly wrong when he describes and figures 

 (Mon. Brit. Spong. i. m. 207, 278) an obviously homy sponge as 

 typical of the genus. The sponges which he has referred by name to 

 this genus (H. choanoides, maritelli, ventriculoides, stellifera) appear 

 to be all in accordance with his, but not with De Blainville's idea 

 of the genus. Hyatt formed the genus Carteriospongia nominally 

 for a species calleid by him otahitica, Esper, which is, however, 

 apparently lamellosa, Esper, to the plate of which he refers. This 

 species differs in outward form from the cup- shaped or palmate 

 HalispongioB of Bowerhank, but agrees with them in the skeleton^ 

 structure, while some Halispongix agree in possessing the cabbage- 

 like growth which characterizes Hyatt's typical Carteriospongice. 

 So many species (Halispongia ventriculoides, Spongia fissurata, 

 Lamk., &c.), which appear to agree in all other points with Hyatt's 

 conception of the genus, have, nevertheless, the secondary fibres 

 sand-cored, that I venture to omit the character " absence of foreign 

 matter from the secondary or connecting fibres," which he attributes 

 not only to the genus, but to the entire family PhyUospongiadae 

 in which he places it. Schulze (Z. wiss. Zool. xxsii. p. 613) upholds 

 this genus as a true member of the family Spongiidse as revised by 

 himself. In the second part of this work I shall explain the reasons 

 why I cannot admit Mawrieea as a distinct genus. 



9. Carterispongia otahitica. 

 Spongia otahitica, Esper, Pflanzenth. Fortsetz. i. p. 209, pL Ixi. 



■figs. 7, 8. 

 Halispongia ventriculoides, Bowerhank, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 301, pi. xlvii. 

 figs. 1, 2. 



2 c 



