424 JANE STEPHENS : ATLANTIC SPONGES 



support ; this feature, as well as the large size of the specimens, showing the extremely 

 sheltered nature of the bays in which they were found. 



Since Esper described some sponges from the Cape of Good Hope more than one 

 hundred years ago, a few species have been noted from time to time from the district, 

 chiefly by Carter, Vosmaer, Ridley and Dendy, and more recently, by Baer. The 

 following species in the collection are known only from this locality : — Mycale simonis 

 (Ridley and Dendy), Homceodictya elastica (Vosmaer), Myxilla simplex (Baer), 

 Clathria lobata Vosmaer, and Siphonochalina tubulosa (Esper). 



With regard to the geographical distribution of the remaining species in the 

 collection, two of them, Spirastrella purpurea and Halichondria panicea, have 

 practically a world-wide distribution. Hymedesmia baculifera has been recorded from 

 the coast of Algeria, off the Azores, and off the Faroes and Iceland ; while the remain- 

 ing species, Cliona lobata, Hymeniacidon caruncula, Pocillon hyndmani, Reniera 

 cinerea and Halisarca dujardini, have long been known from the European coasts 

 of the Atlantic. Some of them have a fairly wide distribution, and their known 

 geographical range has been extended southwards in the Atlantic by their discovery 

 off the south-west coast of Africa. The gathering at the jetty at Cape Town Docks, 

 in particular, as far as the sponges and hydroids are concerned, might have been 

 taken, for example, at any suitable spot along the Irish coast, consisting as it does 

 of specimens of Reniera cinerea and Halichondria panicea, the latter being over- 

 grown by the hydroids Plumularia setacea, P. echinulata, and P. pinnata. On the 

 other hand, the sponges of the western and eastern coasts of South Africa have 

 apparently little in common. The most complete account of South African sponges 

 is contained in Mr Kirkpatrick's report on the Gilchrist Collection (10). Forty-five 

 species are enumerated in this report. All but two, which were dredged in 

 False Bay, were obtained off Natal and off the south-east and south coasts of 

 Cape Colony. There is not a single species in this collection which is repre- 

 sented among the Scotia sponges, and only five genera are common to the two 

 collections. At the same time it must be remembered that the Gilchrist sponges 

 were taken, as a rule, in deeper water than were the Scotia specimens, and that 

 among them are several species previously obtained in the Atlantic, which are 

 not found in the present collection. 



Two of the species obtained by the Scotia, Spirastrella purpurea and 

 Halichondria panicea, have been recorded, the former from Port Elizabeth and 

 Mozambique, and the latter from Zanzibar, but these two species, as already 

 mentioned, have an almost world-wide distribution. In addition to these, a few 

 other widely distributed species, not represented in this collection, have been 

 recorded from both the west and east coasts of Africa. On the whole, there 

 does not seem to be a close agreement between the sponges of the Atlantic 

 and Indian Ocean coasts of South Africa, but too little is known as yet to allow 

 of a detailed comparison between these two areas. 



