74 



ME. H. J. CARTER ON A COLLECTION OP 



SlTBERITES CARNOSA, Johist. 



If a massive form, compact structure, whitish-grey colour, and 

 pin-like spicule only, with terminal, globular, pointed head, and 

 without the centrally inflated fl esh-spicule of Suberites domuncula, 

 Nardo, be allowed to characterize this species, then the two 

 specimens in this collection, one of which, viz. the largest (No. 3), 

 has grown over a crab's back, and is about 2| inches in horizontal 

 and 1^ inch in vertical diameter, represent this sponge. 



Suberites coronariits, Carter, Ann. Sf Mag. Nat. Hist. 5th 

 ser. vol. ix. p. 352 (1882). (Plate VII. figs. 4 & 5.) 



The soft consistence, verrucose surface, buff-yellow colour, 

 and spiculation of this specimen, together with the peculiar 

 form of its flesh-spicule (I. c. pi. xii. fig. 27c), correspond with 

 the characters of the Honduras species to which this sponge is 

 referred. Its growth is more remarkable than in that example, 

 for it is laminar, and extends in a horizontal direction for several 

 square inches ; the superficial stratum, which is comparatively 

 thin and buff-yellow in colour, changes to black or dark brown 

 in the cancellated cavities to be presently mentioned for half 

 an inch downwards, where it rests on granite. The explana- 

 tion of this abrupt termination is that the lower portion is 

 mingled with a layer of coral which has been cancellated by the 

 excavating habit of these sponges, which exhibit an apparent 

 fondness for calcareous material, whether in a mineral or organic 

 form. 



Suberites trincomaliettsis, n. sp. (Plate VI. figs. 7 & 8.) 



"Suberites? sp. undesciibed, Trincomalee," Carter, Ann. Sf Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 5th ser. vol. ix. p. 352 (1882). 



Suberites vagabunda, var. trincomalicnsis, Ridley, Report Zool. Coll. 

 ' Alert,' p. 4(18, note. 



Massive, sessile, rising into short, mammillary processes which 

 are more or less proliferous. Consistence soft. Colour brownish 

 or yellowish white. Surface even, soft, villous. Vents on the 

 Bide or about the base of the mammillary processes, which are 

 otherwise solid, not tubular, and have not a terminal aperture, 

 [nterna] structure compact, traversed by the branches of the 

 excretory canal-system, which open at the vents. Spicules of two 

 forms, viz.: — 1, skeletal, pin-like, smooth, slightly curved, fusi- 

 form, slightly pointed at one end, slightly constricted at the other, 



