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

SPONGIIDA. 435and four of the five agree further in being the only ones of theseries which present an irregular erect expansion or horizontal mass ;a specimen of the erect slender type also shows this colour ; neitherdo I find any thing peculiar in the spicnlation of greenish specimens.Two of them are the only specimens received from PortMolle, the rest are from Torres Straits. But as two flattened specimensfrom the Amirante Islands, in spirit, also possess a decidedolivaceous green coloration, I conclude it to represent a variety,uniting green colour with expanded habit of growth. Possibly thecolours may depend on sexual characters, or reproductive condition,as noted by Keller in Chal'unda feriiUs.The general form and surface characters resemble strongly thoseof the species named by Mr. Carter Axos ancliorata, from Pass'sStraits, except that this is not branched ; in this the colour is givenas brown ; the equianchorate appears to be a modified birotulate,but the skeleton-spicule is acerate. It is perhaps referable toChondrocladia, Wyville Thomson, although, unlike the hitherto describedspecies of that genus, it has no second form of flesh-spicule.68. lotrochota baculifera.(Plate XXXIX. fig. M ; Plate XLII. fig. /.)Erect, formed of subcylindrical lobes, terminating bluntly ; diameterof lobes about 12 millim. Surface chiefly rough, owing tothe projection from it, at intervals of -5 to 1 millim., of bluntmeandering ridges or conical blunt processes, "5 to 1 millim. high ;dermis between eminences smooth, glabrous (in parts smooth patchesof some extent). Texture in spirit soft to touch, but very slightlycompressible and elastic ; colour very dark crimson (almost black).Main skeleton forming somewhat irregular and wide meshes ("4to '(j millim. across) ; consisting of stout compact primary spicularfibres running approximately at right angles to the surface, about12 to 15 spicules broad, and of similar secondary fibres, vertical tothe former in general direction, often meeting them in curves, about10 spicules broad. Sarcode purple, stained diffusely and alsocoloured by the presence of very abundant dark purple cells. Dermalskeleton formed by summits of primary and by uppermostsecondary fibres, and by long compact tracts of cylindrical spiculeswhich traverse the intervening spaces.Spicules :—(1) Smooth aciuite, rather suddenly curved, base wellrounded, tapering to a sharp point from about four diameters fromapex, or to blunt point from about 1| diameters from the apex;size -2 by -0095 to "0127 millim. : forms the main skeleton-fibre.(2) Smooth, cylindrical, straight, ends well rounded ; size -22 to *28by '0063 millim. : lies loose in dermis. (3) Pirotulate, shaft slender,heads about •003 millim. across; teeth four in number, bent inwards,umbrella-like ; length -016 millim.Ilah. Port Darwin, between tide-marks ; bottom mud and rock.The specimen consists of an irregular horizontal mass about 40 by2f2