THE SPONGIDA OR PORIFERA. 343 



" We received one morning, by parcel post, in a bottle con- 

 taining nearly a pint of sea-water, a living specimen of the com- 

 mon crumb-of-bread sponge {Halichondria paniced). Roughly 

 speaking, our specimen consisted of a yellowish-grey, porous, 

 spongy-looking, irregularly shaped mass, enveloping, and attached 

 to a very narrow-branched and black piece of sea-weed ; the 

 irregular form of the sponge being chiefly due to teat-like projec- 

 tions from the general surface, each of these conical elevations 

 having a large hole or orifice at the summit. To particularise? 

 the following are our detailed notes : — 



"The sponge is slightly more than two-and-a-half inches in 

 height, and varies in breadth from two-thirds of an inch to one 

 and two-thirds of an inch, and in depth (that is, from before 

 back) from two-thirds of an inch to one and a quarter inch. 

 The shape is peculiar and very irregular, the upper third of the 

 mass being roughly globular, and separated by a slight constriction 

 from the lower part, which increases in girth and breadth to nearly 

 the base, where there is a transverse split one and a quarter inch 

 long, revealing an empty sulcus, or channel {b i), which has 

 evidently been once filled by the narrow frond of a sea-weed. 

 The entire sponge, indeed, completely envelops, and has grown 

 upon, a branched piece of sea-weed ; the dark-coloured broken 

 edge of the latter (not a quarter of an inch in diameter) crops out 

 about the middle of the sponge {b)^ a similar fragment is appar- 

 ent near the base, and through the substance of the upper part 

 of the mass more can be discerned. 



" The fore-part of the sponge, from the transverse fissure at 

 the base to the top, is remarkably irregular, this irregularity being 

 due to nine more or less prominent, conical, or teat-like projec- 

 tions, roughly arranged in two vertical rows. The most prominent 

 of these is one third of an inch in diameter, and projects at least 

 half-an-inch from the body of the sponge, and the others stand 

 out in varying degrees ; but all have a large oval or rounded 

 orifice («, a) or oscuhun (one-twelfth of an inch or more in diam- 

 eter) in the centre, down which can be easily seen a channel 

 running towards the body of the sponge. The hinder portion of 

 the sponge is much smoother, no prominences or large openings 

 being apparent ; and this surface, too, is of a greenish tint, 



