300 A MONOGRAPH OF THE 



diameter, the thickness rarely exceeding two lines. The 

 natural base has been destroyed, but it does not appear to 

 have exceeded half an inch in length. The primary ske- 

 leton fibres radiate from the base towards the distal mar- 

 gins of the sponge ; they are very minute and nearly uni- 

 form in diameter. The secondary fibres are somewhat ir- 

 regular in the mode of their disposition ; but they are 

 usually nearly at right angles to the primary ones, and are 

 very nearly as large in their diameter. The whole texture 

 of the skeleton is very symmetrical and uniform. The 

 oscula in the type specimen are not readily distinguishable ; 

 there are indications of a few small ones near the distal 

 margins of the sponge. There are no remains of dermal 

 membrane or sarcode in the type specimen. 



Mr. A. Hancock kindly sent me up for examination two 

 specimens of the sponge. The first one examined, the 

 larger of the two, was one and a half inch in height by an 

 inch in width. Massive, with projecting lobes, each of 

 winch has an osculum at its termination about half a line 

 in diameter. The dermal membrane was pellucid, and was 

 thickly coated with dark amber-coloured sarcode, including 

 much granular extraneous matter ; the fibre was also coated 

 with sarcode, but no spicula were apparent in any part of 

 the sponge. 



I have a young specimen of this sponge coating part of 

 a small bouldered granite pebble, dredged by Mr. Jeffreys 

 off the Outer Skerries, Shetland, in May, 1864, from fifty to 

 eighty fathoms depth, and preserved for me by Mr. Peach. 

 It is oval in form; and its greatest length is not quite half 

 an inch, and its extreme thickness about two lines. It is 

 in a fine state of preservation, and has the dermal membrane 

 perfect, and in each of the dermal areas there are from five 

 to eight pores in an open condition. 



