SPONGIIBA. 465 



SUBEEITID^. 

 Suberitida, Carter, Ann. S[ Mag. N. H. 1875, xvi. p. 133. 



No strikingly new form ooours in this group. It is remarkable 

 that from so large an Australian collection Tethya is altogether 

 absent, though. Dr. Bowerbank long since showed that it is well 

 established in these seas. 



93. Suberites carnosus. 



Halichondria carnosa, Johnston, Brit. Sponff. p. 146, pi. xiii. figs. 

 7&8. 



Two specimens undistinguishable from British specimens of this 

 common species. Mr. Carter has recorded its occurrence at Ker- 

 guelen Island (Phil. Trans. clxTiii. p. 287). The present specimens 

 are greenish white in spirit and irregularly lobate in shape; 

 one appears to have been attached by the base, the others to 

 have been quite unattached. The spicules have a suboval head, 

 the free end projecting slightly beyond the actual enlargement 

 of the head, and measure "28 to '87 by "0063 millim. (the spi- 

 cules of the Johnstonian type measure -45 by "0063 millim., and 

 have a similarly formed head). The arrangement of the skeleton- 

 fascicles is also closely similar, the greater distance between them 

 in the present specimens being probably due to the more natural 

 conditions retained by preservation in spirit. 



Sah. Port Jackson, 0-5 fms. 



Distribution. British Islands (Bowerbank). 



94. Suberites epiphytmn. 

 Alcyonium epiphytum, Lamarck, MSm. Mus. Hist. Nat. i. p. 163. 



Lamarck's species, as I have ascertained from the original speci- 

 men in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes, is a Suberites coating 

 a fucus with a thin lamina of sponge (in which are imbedded a 

 number of spinulate spicules whose heads rest for the most part 

 almost directly on the supporting fucus, while their points project 

 freely to the exterior). There is no flesh-spicule. The spinulate 

 skeleton-spicule is generally curved, and gradually tapers to a sharp 

 point ; the head is transversely elongated, the side at which it is 

 attached to the shaft being flat, and the free end curved, but more 

 gradually than the lateral parts (in fact the shape is nearly that of 

 the head of the spicule of Gauhspongia, Kent, which Mr. Carter has 

 graphically compared to a door-handle) ; the head is not unfre- 

 quently surmounted by a, slight prominence (marking the aborted 

 second ray, if the spinulate spicule is to be regarded as a uniaxial, 

 biradiate spicule, with one ray aborted).. In the type specimen 

 there is some dark granular matter between the spicules. The 



2h 



