76 BRITISH SPONGIAD.E. 



Habitat. A curiously formed specimen has been 

 found by me in Westport Bay. It is located on an 

 old valve of Pecten varius, and lias apparently thrown 

 a coating over a fair-sized piece of Nullipora polymor- 

 plia, filling up the interstices of and covering over the 

 Nullipore, and attaching it by its own structures to the 

 shell on which it rests. The entire size of the sponge 

 is one and a half inch long, one and a quarter broad, 

 and not quite an inch high (N.). 



14. HYMEXIACIDOX TEGETICULA, Bow., in, 216, PI. 

 LXXIV, figs. 16, 17. 



15. HYMENIACIDON SOLIDUS, Bou-., n. sp., iv, PI. Ill, figs. 

 47. 



" Sponge basally massive, developing upward into a 

 thick stout virgultose branch ; surface even, smooth. 

 Oscula simple, depressed. Pores inconspicuous. 

 Dermis abundantly spiculous, reticulated irregularly, 

 and bi- or trispiculous ; spicula subfusiformi-acerate, 

 long, and stout. Skeleton open and diffuse, abun- 

 dantly spiculous; spicula acerate or subfusiformi-ace- 

 rate, a few large and stout like those of the dermis, the 

 greater portion long and slender. 



" Colour. Dried state, dark brown. 



" Habitat. Westport Bay, Ireland, 5 fathoms ; Eev. 

 A. M. Norman. 



"Examined. In the dried state. 



" The irregularly-shaped basal mass of this sponge is 



