204 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1887. 



aspinosa. Just before leaving the place, happening to draw up a 

 submerged slab lying in shallow water near the saw-mill, I found, 

 irregularly scattered upon its under side, a quantity of large, light- 

 colored particles, disconnected from any noticeable sponge growth, 

 and looking suspiciously like large grains of sawdust. They were 

 so much larger than ordinary statoblasts, that, not delaying to ex- 

 amine them minutely, I filled one or two bottles on "general princi- 

 ples" merely and took them with me. My pleasure in examining 

 them after reaching home and chagrin at the recollection that, con- 

 trary to my usual custom, I had left the slab half drawn out of the 

 water, was such that I wrote by the next mail to the proprietor of 

 the mill, requesting him to restore the timber with the remaining 

 embryos to their native element. On two subsequent visits I was 

 successful in finding and collecting growing sponges of this species, 

 exhibiting the peculiarities described in the technical part of this 

 description. 



From a somewhat similar pond in the neighborhood of Vineland 

 N. J. my friend U. C. Smith Esq. has, on two occasions, brought 

 me gemmules of the same species. 



From MacKay's Lake, near Pictou, Nova Scotia, Mr. A. H. 

 MacKay has kindly sent what seems to me the same or a nearly re- 

 lated species, which was described a year later by Mr. Carter under 

 the name of 



(15) Spongilla mackayi, Carter. Ann. and Mag. Jan. 1885, p. 19. 



"Sponge sessile, spreading ; charged Avith little sub-globular bodies, 

 like large statoblasts, about one twelfth inch in diameter. Skeleton 

 spicules acerate, slightly curved, sharp-pointed, more or less thickly 

 spined; averaging 50 by 22-6000ths. inches in their greatest dimen- 

 sions. Statoblast globular, consisting of a thick chitinous coat filled 

 with the usual germinal matter, from which is very slightly prolonged 

 an everted trumpet-shaped aperture ; bearing slight traces externally 

 of microcell-structure and the polygonal tissue ; making one of 

 twenty such which are so arranged as to form a sub-globular body 

 of the size mentioned ; situated around a central cavity with their 

 apertures inwards; the Avhole supported by statoblast spicules of 

 various sizes, Avhich, intercrossing each other form a nest-like glob- 

 ular capsule in which the outer parts of the statoblasts are fixed and 

 covered ; apparently, (for the specimen is dry) deficient at one point, 

 Avhich leads into tlie central cavity. Siatoblast spicules acerate; 

 sharp-pointed like the skeletal spicules, but becoming much shorter 



