Holopsamma laminafavosa

Hab. Marine.

Specimen hemispherical. globular, elongate, sessile or contracted towards the base. Consistence tender, friable, coarse, gritty. Colour dark brown. Surface consisting of the edges of the lamina?, often passing into a honeycomb form by transverse interuniting processes. Pores indistinct, on the surface of the lamina?. Vents also small, on their margins. Struc ­ ture columnar, radiating, laminar; lamina? thin, undulating, closely applied to each other, like the leaves of a book, or thicker, further apart, and interunited by transverse processes, producing the honeycomb-like structure. Size variable.

Obs. The globular, elongated, or hemispherical structure radiating laminiferously or in the form of a honeycomb, together with the dark brown colour, characterizes this species, to which may be added another variety, where the lamina? are grouped irregularly, irregular on the surface, and irregularly notched or denticulated on the margin: alsoanother form in wdiich the lamina is branched digitato-chalina-like.

Loc. Port Phillip Heads. Depth 20 fath. and under.