MICBOCIONA. 51 



<( Examined. In the dried state. 



" I received this sponge with many others from my 

 friend the Rev. A. M. Norman for examination. It 

 consists of two little specimens, which have evidently 

 been united by small adhesive points near their basal 

 portions. When thus united the two would not have 

 exceeded an inch in diameter, and the greatest height 

 is about half an inch. One of these small masses is 

 composed of four comparatively large conical tumuli, 

 each terminating in a cloacal orifice, the margin of 

 which is slightly thickened, and is quite smooth. The 

 other specimen, rather the largest of the two, has 

 one large tumulus and an immature one ; the large one 

 has three terminal orifices, and appears to have been 

 two or more tumuli fused together by close contact. 

 The largest of the tumuli rather exceeds half an inch 

 in height. 



" The dermal membrane abounds with spicula, which 

 are closely felted together without any approach to 

 definite arrangement. They vary to a small extent in 

 size, but they are in every respect the same as those of 

 which the skeleton-columns are composed. 



" The skeleton exhibits the most strikingly distinctive 

 characters of the species. The columns are long and 

 slender ; the spicula of which they are composed are 

 compactly cemented together, and in the specimen in 

 course of description they are of a deep blood-red 

 colour. The columns are completely destitute of 

 internal defensive spicula. When the columns, pass- 

 ing from the basal portion of the sponge, reach the 

 dermal membrane, they do not terminate there, but 

 bending at an angle they continue their course in con- 

 tact with the inner surface of the membrane for con- 



