Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

403 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA.Surface even, very slightly roughened by the projecting primaryskeleton-lines, which form a fine velvet-like pile. Texture in spiritsoft, compressible, elastic ; colour pale brown, with a slight (possiblyaccidental) tinge of purple. Main skeleton—network rectangular ;fibre to the eye wholly composed of spicules loosely aggregated,especially in the secondary fibres ;primary fibres running at rightangles to surface, spicules 3- to 5-serial ; secondary fibres, spicules1- to 3-serial ; intervals between primaries about -IT millim., andthe same between secondaries. No special dermal skeleton. Sarcodedark umber-brown. Spicules smooth acerate, slightly and graduallycurved, tapering gradually to sharp points from near centre ; size•21 by -on millim.Hah. West Island, Torres Straits, 7 fms. ; bottom mud andcoral.Distribution. St. Peter and St. Francis Islands, Australia(^Lamarck),The "leviter incrustaj fibrge " and the " 2- seu 3-fidi tubuli " ofLamarck's description are the only points not quite in agreementwith our specimen ; but it is evidently young, and might havebranched when older ; and the " incrustaj " apparently alludes to theearcode, which here, as in Lamarck's var. Jidis snhnudis, has not allbeen retained ; his specimens were 18-25 centimetres (7-10 inches)in length. Schmidt's Rniiera aiha (Adr. Meer. p. 73), from thoAdriatic, seems to resemble the species, but a wniserial network isfigured for its skeleton.39. Reniera ferula.Isodictya ferula, Boicerbank, Man. Brit. Spong. iv. p. 116, pi. viii.figs. 1-3.A small specimen of the size and shape of a hazel-nut, with fewvents about -8 millim. in diameter ; colour (in spirit) dull brown.It docs not bear the interesting handle-like process on whichDr. Bowerbank lays so much weight as a " caudal appendage,"which is (as the type specimens appear to have been young) perhaps aform of a stolon, like that described by Mereschkowsky in an Esperiafrom the White Sea (Mem. Acad. Petersb. xxvi. no. 7, p. 22, pis. i.& iii. figs.), but which, as being apparently sessile by its wholelength, as a stolon would normally be. Dr. Bowerbank cannot be rightin comparing (Z. c. p. 117) with the erect digitate processes whichdistinguish the genus Foh/mastia. The absence of this lobe doesnot appear to be of sufficient importance to separate this speciesfrom Bowerbank's. The spicules measiire -21 by '0079 millim.,whereas those of Bowerbank's type specimen are -19 by '01 millim.,and arc thus decidedly stouter ; the arrangement of the skeleton isessentially the same in both species. The specimen is attached towhat seems to be a Hydroid stem.Hab. Port Darwin, 7-12 fms. ; bottom sand and mud.Distrihvtion. Ireland {BowcrbcDik).