BRITISH SP0NGIAD.E. 59 



skeleton formed of spicula of the same form and size 

 as those of the primary fasciculi, irregularly disposed 

 on the interstitial membranes. Spicula of skeleton 

 acuate, large, and long. 



Colour. Alive, cream white. 



Habitat. About five miles off Whitby, Captain 

 F. W. L. Thomas, R.N. 



Examined. In the dried state. 



I received two specimens of this sponge from my friend 

 Captain F. W. L. Thomas, R.N., of the Hydrographical 

 Survey. They were dredged about five miles from the 

 Yorkshire coast near Whitby, in thirty-five fathoms. He 

 destribed them as " attenuated cylinders two or three 

 inches long and a quarter of an inch in diameter, hollow, 

 and flaccid, consisting only of a thin skin resembling white 

 glove leather when recent." Each of these specimens 

 was about one and a half inches in length, and not quite 

 three lines in diameter at the torn base, no part of the 

 natural one being present ; and they were compressed into 

 a strap shaped form. On opening one of them from the 

 proximal end to the apex, it presented a regular and. very 

 beautiful arrangement of the tissues. The inner surface 

 is furnished with a single layer of large, symmetrical, 

 parallel bundles of spicula which proceed from the base to 

 the apex, in an elongated spiral direction, making about 

 one turn between the two extremities. The fasciculi are 

 united by a beautiful wide network of interlacing bundles 

 of spicula. Between the inner and outer surface of the 

 sponge there are irregular interstitial cavities either two or 

 three deep, or a single one, which extends from the outer to 

 the inner surface; thus approximating very closely to the prin- 

 ciple of the structure in the parietes of the genus Grantia. 



This beautiful and symmetrical arrangement of the 

 tissues strikingly calls to mind the delicate and truly 

 elegant sponge skeleton described by Professor Owen in 

 the ' Transactions of the Zoological Society,' vol. iii, page 

 203, plate xiii, and designated by him Euplectella asper- 



