THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



($ttcluit Hlkrostflpml Club. 



On a New British Sponge of the Genus Microciona. 



By J. G. Waller. 



(Read November 23rd, 1877.) 

 Plates I. II. 



The Sponge, which I have the pleasure of bringing before you, 

 was found in a deep cleft on the under side of a boulder of the New 

 Red Sandstone, off Paignton, in Torbay, at about the ordinary low 

 tide mark. The locality is well known to our naturalists, both past 

 and present. The Rev. Charles Kingsley, in his " Glaucus," has elo- 

 quently descanted on the abundant riches of the place, which afforded 

 him much enjoyment in the study of natural history. Following the 

 retiring tide, especially if it be at the equinox, you have ample 

 leisure for an examination of those fringes of the rocks where a 

 certain class of sponges are found in considerable quantity. These 

 are for the most part " coating sponges," or those which like to fix 

 themselves in narrow fissures ; and that which I bring before you as 

 yet undescribed and new to our fauna, belongs to the first class, and 

 to the genus established by Dr. Bowerbank, under the name of 

 Microciona. 



The characters which distinguish the genus are thus set forth in 

 the second volume of the " Spongiadse," p. 7, as having" a common 

 basal membrane, whence spring, at or about right angles to its 

 plane, numerous separate columns of spicula, intermixed with 

 keratode, furnished externally with spicula, which radiate from the 

 columns, at various angles, towards the dermal surface of the 

 sponge." Dr. Bowerbank has tabulated twelve varieties, all of 



B 



