BRITISH SPONGIAD.E. 335 



Colour. Alive, red or crimson ; dried, light green. 

 Habitat. Weymouth, Mr. Bean. 

 Examined. In the dry state. 



I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Bean, of Scarborough, 

 for my knowledge of this species. He states, " I received 

 a large stone, covered with this sponge, from Weymouth ; 

 when fresh the colour was red or crimson." The piece I 

 received was about an inch in length by three quarters of 

 an inch in breadth, and it did not exceed the eighth of an 

 inch in thickness at any part. The surface is very uneven, 

 and bristling with spicula from the terminations of the 

 radial lines of the skeleton, from the lines of the axes of 

 which, they diverge at a slight angle when projected from 

 the surface of the sponge. The oscula are visible by the 

 aid of a lens of two inches focus ; they are very numerous 

 and rather equally dispersed, but are most abundant on the 

 depressed portions of the surface. 



The sponge has apparently been soaked in preparing it 

 for the cabinet to such an extent in fresh water as to have 

 destroyed nearly the whole of the dermal membrane, in the 

 small portion of it that remains I could not detect many of 

 the pores from the quantity of sarcode present, but they 

 appear to be minute and not very abundant. The dermal 

 membrane is translucent, and is furnished rather abundantly 

 with slender attenuato-acuate and tricurvate spicula in 

 about equal proportions ; the minute anchorate spicula are 



verv rare. 



ti 



The smooth primary lines of spicula, of the skeleton are 

 twice the average length of the spinous ones of the secondary 

 lines of the skeleton, but the diameter is about equal in 

 each. The anchorate spicula occur rarely on the interstitial 

 membranes as well as on the dermal one ; they appear in 

 all cases to be attached by the central portion of the bow ; 

 the reverse is the case with the tricurvate spicula, which 

 are always lying on their sides, their whole length being 

 attached to the surface of the membrane ; occasionally the 

 latter form of speculum is seen intermixed with those of 

 the skeleton. 



