CALCAREOUS SPONGES 
By Arthur Dendy, D.Sc., F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of London 
(King’s College.) 
(With plate I). 
The number of calcareous sponges in the collection is remarkably small, and of these 
the most conspicuous are a number of specimens of Leucosolenia ventricosa, obtained 
off Tasmania, while a large proportion of the remainder were collected on the shore 
at Macquarie Island, leaving very few which are really Antarctic. There is nothing 
strikingly novel in the collection, but three of the species have to be described as new. 
The classification adopted is that of Dendy and Row’s “ Classification and Phylogeny of 
the Calcareous Sponges,” &c. [1913]. The dates in square brackets refer to the 
literature list at the end. In accordance with my usual practice, the specimens are 
numbered so that they can be referred to individually, the Roman numerals being the 
numbers which I myself attached to the jars as received by me, and the Arabic 
numerals referring to the specimens in the jars in cases where there were more than one. 
R.N. stands for register number. 
Leucosolenia botryoides (Ellis and Solander) var. macquariensis nov. 
(Plate I, figs. 1, 6a-6c). 
(For literature and synonymy of the species, vide Minchin [1905]). 
There are in the collection four colonies, or fragments of colonies, of this sponge. 
The largest (fig. 1) is irregular in outline and measures about 27 mm. in length by 17 mm. 
in greatest breadth and 10 mm. in greatest thickness. The colonies are massive and 
have apparently been encrusting, with broad bases of attachment. Each consists of 
a close network of slender, contorted tubes, averaging about half a millimetre in 
diameter; forming a fairly compact mass, but with no pseudoderm. From the upper 
surface spring a few short oscular tubes of much greater width, which appear to be 
formed each by the junction of a number of the slender tubes. An oscular tube may 
give off a few blind diverticula from its lower portion, but these are in reality only parts 
of the basal network which have not yet anastomosed with one another or with the 
older portions. The oscular tubes are only about 2 mm. in length and they may be as 
much in diameter. The terminal vents have no fringe of projecting spicules and vary 
greatly in size. They are, of course, true oscula and not pseudoscular. The colour of 
the sponge in spirit is white. 
The canal system is perfectly typical and requires no further description. The 
histological condition of the material makes it impossible to investigate satisfactorily 
