Luffaria digitata

Hab. Marine.

Specimen digitate, branched, rising from a short single stem; digitations solid, simple, cylindrical, long, and branched, or expanded palmately at first, and then subdivided irregularly into smaller branches of unequal size ami length afterwards. Consistence loose, soft, in the spirit-preserved specimen. Colour, when fresh, u enamel pink, ” now pinkish grey. Surface cactiform, consisting of long conuli about j in. apart, each terminated by a single or bifurcated filament of the skeletal fibre, which makes them look still longer, held toge ­ ther by an intervening thick, well-marked fibro-rcticulated dermis, in which the fibrous part is fleshy and soft, and the whole devoid of any foreign material. Pores in the inter ­ stices of the reticulation. Vents here and there chiefly situ ­ ated on projecting processes. Fibrous structure of the interior loose, widely reticulated; fibre itself composed of a stout cylinder of dark amber-coloured keratine, cored or axiated, as usual, with a grey granulo- flocculent substance; core less in diameter than the thickness of the kcratose wall, producing a corresponding wide and loose parenchyma, of which the sarcordic laminaj tympanizing the interstices of the fibro-reticulation are thick, fleshy, soft, ami traversed by a reticu ­ lation of soft fibre like the dermis. Size ot specimen 9 in. high by 4 x 2 horizontally. Palmate expansion of the largest branch 2 in. broad by j in. thick, shrinking from its loose open structure to a comparatively insignificant size when dried.

Obs. The comparative absence of lateral fibre here, the smallness of the core compared with the thickness of the kcratose wall <4 the fibre generally, tne coarse open fibrous reti ­ culation of the skeleton, and the red fleshy sarcode characterize this species. To say that it never goes beyond the size or consistence mentioned would be premature, since there are many skeletal specimens of this family from Australia in the British Museum which far exceed these in dimensions as well as in compactness of structure. Then it should be remem ­ bered that the older the growing specimen is, the thicker the fibre, which, of course, is especially seen at the base. Thus in two small specimens (? of a new species), received from the same source, since the above was written, each about 4 in, long, one of which is club-shaped and the other bifurcated, the fibre commences in a thick, round, furrowed, skeletal stem about l- 12 th in. in diameter, which throws out buds from its surface and ultimately branches into a dendritic form to support the sarcode of the head, which is of a brown colour. Why the colour should be brown in one specimen of the same species and red in another, while the soft fleshy fibro-reticulation of the dermis is equally charged with? - pigmental cells in all, I am ignorant.

Loc. Port Phillip Heads, South Australia. Depth 20 fath.