28 



SEA-SHORE LIFE 



.•-si... i,.>»> -,, 



Fig. 5/ Clam Shell infested with Boring 

 Sponge, Long Island Sound. 



dome-shaped, not more than eight inches in diameter, and the fibres 



b'ecome brittle with age. 



S^Donges are reproduced 

 from eggs which develop into 

 free swimming larvEe, but soon 

 settle down upon the bottom 

 and grow into tlie sponge form. 

 They will also grow very read- 

 ily from cuttings or spores, and 

 almost any fragment of a 

 sponge is capable under favor- 

 able conditions of regenerating 

 a perfect sponge. 



A well illustrated paper 

 giving an account of the com- 

 mercial sponges of Florida is 

 given by Dr. H. M. Smith in 



Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. XVIT, 1897, 



p. 225-240. 



Among non-commercial sponges, the Red Sponge, (Microciona 



prolifera, Figs. S, 4), is foimd in shallow water from South Carolina 



to Cape Cod, and is very abundant 



upon oyster and scallop shells in 



Long Island Sound. It can be at 



once recognized by its brilliant 



crimson color. When young it 



forms broad, thin incrustations, 



but later it gives rise to branches 



which may be four inches in 



height. 



The Boring Sponge, (Clioiia 



sulplinrea, Fig. 5), a sulphur-col- 

 ored sponge, is very destructive 



to the shells of oysters, clams, etc. 



It completely honeycombs and 



dissolves the shell, riddling it 



with galleries and holes, and finally growing over the outside. It 



is abundant along the sIku^cs from South Carolina to Cape Cod. 



Fig. 6; THE FINGER SPONGE, Salem 

 Harbor, Massachusetts. 



