190 A MONOGRAPH OF THE 



in which they have been immersed. Since the above 

 description was written I have received five specimens of 

 this species from my friend Mr. C. W. Peach, they were 

 dredged at Shetland, in 1864. The largest was twelve 

 inches high, six inches broad, an inch thick near one edge, 

 and a quarter of an inch at the middle ; one only of the 

 five was as small as the type specimen, and the others of 

 intermediate size, one of them, seven inches in length, was 

 tw<o and a half inches thick near the base. Mr. Peach, in 

 a label attached to the largest specimen, writes : " This 

 was a thick sponge, very full of glairy matter, and branched, 

 but was cut to pieces by the dredge, and rotted in drying. 

 Very deep water, Outer Skerries and Unst." 



The statement of its having been branched must, I think, 

 have been a mistake, as there are no indication of branches 

 on the specimen to which the label was attached, nor any 

 appearance of a tendency to branch in any other of the 

 specimens. This sponge, it is evident, varies greatly in 

 size, but all of them have more or less of a lingual form, and 

 in their anatomical characters they agreed perfectly with the 

 type specimen. 



25.Hymeniacidon floreum, Bowerbank. 



Sponge. Coating, thin; surface smooth and even. Oscula 

 simple, minute, dispersed. Pores inconspicuous. 

 Dermal membrane pellucid, sparingly furnished with 

 dispersed slender sub-clavate, fusiformi-acuate, tension 

 spicula. Skeleton. Spicula sub-clavate fusiformi-acuate, 

 stout and rather long. Tension spicula of interstitial 

 membranes same as the dermal ones. Retentive spicula 

 dentato- palmate inequi-anchorate, large and stout; 

 distal palm, half as long as the spiculum, congregated 

 in numerous radial groups ; and bidentate inequi- 

 anchorates few in number, and intermixed in the radial 

 groups ; also, deflected and contort bihamate spicula, 

 very large and stout, and few in number; and simple 

 bihamate very minute, and rather numerous. 



