282 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
Here we have, in the first place,an abundant fauna of Sponges, as 
yet very imperfectly known. Foremost among these is the great 
beautiful Hexactinellid, Rossella antarctica, Carter, which is also an 
inhabitant of the abyssal Indo-Pacific area. Also very abundant is 
a Tetractinellid, Zetilla grandis, Soll. The numerous Monaxonida 
and Calcarea are chiefly remarkable for the ascription of several of 
them (in the mean time) to common British or Mediterranean species, 
eg. Halichondria panicea, Johnst., Reniera rosea, Bowerb., Myzilla 
plumosa, Mont., Suberites carnosus, Johnst., Ute capillosa, Schmidt. 
According to Mr. Carter, “Half of the species at the fewest 
(i.e. of the Transit of Venus collection) may be picked up at any 
time on the coast of South Devon.” Mr. Ridley, however, reporting 
on the much larger Challenger collection, while agreeing with Mr. 
Carter that the cosmopolitan Halichondria punicea of Kerguelen is 
identical with the British species, and while ascribing one other form, 
Stylocordyla stipitata, var. globosa, to a variety of another widely dis- 
tributed species, considers all his other species distinct and peculiar 
to the Kerguelen area. 
Of the remaining Hydroids we have first the (not too well 
characterised) Plumularian genus Schizotricha, of which two species 
are described by Allman; second, a species of Selaginopsis, S. wreeo- 
lifera, Kirch., a genus whose distribution is mainly circum-arctic, with 
its headquarters apparently in the N. Pacific, and which appears also 
in Japan and in New Zealand ; lastly, two Plumulariz, one of which, 
P. flabellum, Allm., is recorded also from the Crozets, while the other 
is ascribed to the common northern P. frutescens, Ell. and Sol., and is 
said to occur also at the Cape of Good Hope. 
All the Alcyonaria belong to peculiar species, but one of the three 
genera, Primnoisis, is as yet only known from this region, the Crozets 
and Cape Horn. The four species are Clavularia rosea, Stud., Aley- 
onium antarcticum, Wrght and Stud., Primnoisis antarctica, Stud., 
P. ambigua, Wrght and Stud. 
Among the star-fishes, we have in the first place a Brisingid, de- 
scribed by Studer as Gymnobrisinga sarst, though its claim to generic 
distinction seems not very certain, and also a species of the allied 
genus Labidiaster, L. annulatus, Sladen, whose range extends also to 
the Arafura Sea: the latter genus is known also by another species, 
L. radiosus, Litken, from the Patagonian region. In the same group 
the type genus Brisinga (B. membranacea, Sladen, and B. discincta, 
Sladen) and the nearly allied Freyella (F. fragillissima, Sladen) are 
both known from the Southern Ocean. The remarkable genus 
Pedicellaster, sometimes classified with the former genera, is repre- 
