162 A MONOGRAPH OF THE 



few in number. Pores inconspicuous. Dermal mem- 

 brane pellucid, aspiculous. Skeleton. Spicula fusi- 

 formi-acerate, large and long. 



Colour. Alive ; lemon-yellow ; dried state, white. 

 Habitat. Berwick Bay, Dr. Johnston; Roundham Head, 

 Torbay, Mr. Gosse ; Guliot Caves, Sark, J. S. Bowerbank. 

 Examined. In the living state. 



I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Gosse, for my first 

 knowledge of this species, as although described by Dr. 

 Johnston, in his ' History of British Sponges,' I could not 

 find it among the sponges deposited by him in the British 

 Museum, as the types of the species described in that 

 work. Mr. Gosse states that he found the specimens he 

 sent to me " on the under surfaces of boulders and crom- 

 lechs of soft red sandstone, at Roundham Head, Torbay," 

 and he also describes the colour when alive as " a pale buff 

 or drab,' 5 and that they were abundant. A few weeks after 

 receiving them from Mr. Gosse, I found the same species 

 in the sides of the rocks of the celebrated Guliot Caves, in 

 the island of Sark, in considerable quantity. 



The sponge in its living condition is of a lemon yellow 

 colour, but it loses this tint in drying, and becomes of a 

 silvery white. Dr. Johnston's description of its colour 

 would, therefore, be correct, supposing his specimens to 

 have been found on fuci cast up by the sea, and the sponge 

 in a dead condition. In the living condition, the surface 

 is quite smooth, but in the dried state it is often slightly 

 hispid from the contraction of the sponge in drying, and 

 the consequent protrusion of some of the spicula near 

 the surface, through the dermal membrane. The specimens 

 which I found in the Guliot Caves were most frequently 

 parasitical on Zoophites or on small Balani, and in this 

 habit they also agree with those found by Dr. Johnston. 

 From all these circumstances, I am strongly inclined to 

 believe that the species found by Mr. Gosse and by me, 

 and that designated by Dr. Johnston Halicliondria albescens 

 are the same. 



