184 BRITISH 



S. pulchella, dredged off the Durham coast in thirty- 

 five fathoms of water. It is nine lines in height, and 

 closely resembles in form the specimen of the same 

 species represented by figure 6, PI. LXV, vol. Ill, 

 ' Mon. Brit. Spongiadse,' excepting only that it has 

 the natural base, two lines in diameter, attached to a 

 small fragment of a shell. This specimen is in a fine 

 state of preservation, and is remarkable from its having 

 an abundance of gemmules or ovaries attached to 

 the inner surface of the dermal membrane, and to the 

 fibres and membranes in the interior of the sponge. 

 A few of these bodies are somewhat oval, but by far 

 the greater number are spherical. As it is usually the 

 case under such circumstances they vary greatly in 

 their size. I measured several of them ; the smallest 

 was 73"oth inch in diameter and the largest yio-th inch, 

 and specimens of every gradation in size between the 

 two extremes were very numerous ; and all of them were 

 black and perfectly opaque ; but in the remains of some 

 of them that had apparently discharged their contents 

 there were indications of their having contained numer- 

 ous minute spherical molecules, such as we occasionally 

 find in similar organs in other members of the Spon- 

 giadse. One of these in a fine state of preservation 

 measured -g-TVoth inch in diameter. These gemmules 

 or ovaries were attached indifferently to the membranes 

 or fibres of the interior of the sponge, and from the 

 section mounted in Canada balsam they appeared to 

 be very numerous, and to be distributed through all 

 parts of the sponge. It is the only case in which I 

 have observed the reproductive organs in the genus 

 Spongionella, but in a specimen of a keratose sponge 

 from Australia, described by me in the ' Annals and 



