Pseudoceratina durissima, Gunther & Dallas & Carruthers & Francis, 1885

Gunther, Albert C. L. G., Dallas, William S., Carruthers, William & Francis, William, 1885, The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology, Reptiles and Batrachians from Brazil, LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.; KENT AND CO.,; WHITT AKER AND CO.: BAILLIERE, PARIS: MACLACHLAN AND STEWART, EDINBURGH: HODGES, FOSTER, AND CO., DUBLIN: AND ASHER, BERLIN: TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, pp. 1-96 : 201-205

Pseudoceratina durissima , n. sp.

Massive, sessile, lobed, somewhat compressed. Consistence solid, intensely hard. Colour, when fresh, “ blue-black,” now black-mulberry. Surface uneven but smooth, consisting of a thin, hard, compact fibrillous dermis spread over low conular elevations of the subjacent tissue, with an indistinct reticulation between them; fibrilla? of the dermis colourless, plentifully accompanied by minute dark pigmental cells. Pores in the interstices of the dermal reticulation now (probably from contraction) only discernible under the microscope. Vents scattered over the surface, but small, probably from the same cause. Parenchyma chiefly composed of fibrillose sarcode structurally blended with the fibrillae of the dermis, but, from the comparative absence of pigmental cells, much lighter in colour; charged more or less with grains of sand and other foreign microscopic objects, which, in some parts, are surrounded by layers of amber-coloured keratine, so as to form unconnected and ill-defined short fragments or traces of genuine fibre, which is otherwise absent. Size of specimen 2 in. high by 4 x 2 in. horizontally at the base.

Hab. Alarine.

Loc. Port Phillip Heads, South Australia. Depth 19 fath.

Obs. The dark purple colour of the surface with the subconular elevations, together with the fragmentary character of genuine fibre produced here and there by the development of k(ratine lamina? round some of the foreign objects of the interior, appear to me to ally this remarkable sponge to the third family of the Ceratina more than to any other group; while its intense wood-like hardness and the fact that, when cut into, the interior is yellow', but rapidly changes before the eye to green and lastly lead-colour or grey, after the manner of the poisonous Boletus , viz. B. luridus , are peculiarities which cannot fail to point out the species.

Moreover, I now find, from having such a well-preserved and large specimen to deal with, that the small dried fragincut from Australia that I described and represented with the Trincomalee species under the name of Aplysina purpurea (’Annals,’ 1881, vol. viii. pp. 103, 104, pl. ix. fig. 2, a, b, c), should not have been included under this name, but, being identical with that in Air. Wilson’s collection, should, on the contrary, be considered. as a specimen of Pseudoceratina durissima .