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On a Newly Discovered British Sponge. 



By J. G. Waller. 

 {Read February 23, 1883.) 



PLATE VIII. 



I have the pleasure of bringing before you another sponge, which 

 I believe to be new to the British fauna, making the third I have 

 discovered within a very small range of coast. And I think I 

 shall also have one more for a future occasion, found within the 

 same limits, viz., from the eastern promontory of Torbay to its 

 central shore at Paignton. Now, considering that my opportunities, 

 when staying at Torquay, professionally engaged, have been re- 

 stricted to very brief visits to the shore, it justifies what has been 

 expressed by Dr. Bowerbank, and again by his editor, the Rev. A. 

 M. Norman (" Brit. Spongiadas," Vol. iv.,p. 4) how much more our 

 coasts may yield to this department. Dr. Bowerbank says, alluding 

 to the increasing number of species, " It is strikingly apparent, 

 from the many new species continually being found among the 

 sponges dredged and otherwise collected by British naturalists, that 

 those already described do not by any means comprise the whole of 

 our British fauna ; and it is highly probable that future labourers 

 in this interesting field of natural history will add very considerably 

 to their number." Mr. Norman, in alluding to a table compiled by 

 him, showing geographical distribution says (p. 4) : — " The table 

 makes it clear that the sponge fauna of many parts of our seas re- 

 mains almost wholly unexplored ; and it is hoped that the very de- 

 ficiency exhibited here will have a tendency, among other causes, 

 to induce our younger and rising naturalists to take up the great 

 field of research which here lies open to them. Speaking from a 

 very extended knowledge of the zoology of our coasts, I unhesitat- 

 ingly state that no other class of animals offers to the student so 

 rich a field for exploration, or one in which he is likely to meet with 

 60 many hitherto unknown species." 



My own small experience testifies in the same direction. None 

 of the species described by me are found in Dr. Bowerbank's Vol. 

 iv. lately issued. Yet it may be of use, if I state that my modes 



