NORTH AMERICAN PORIFER.E. PART 11. 511 



Spougia ofilcinalis Linu. 

 Sjiongia officinalis Esper, Pflanzentliiere, vol. 2, pi. 15. 



Sub-speuies Mediterranea. 



Variety Adriatica. 



Spongia Adriatica Sclim., Spoiig. d. Adriatish. Meeres, p. 20. 



Spongia Quarnerensis Sclim., ibid. 



This variety, PI. xvi, figs. 18, 19, has a somewhat coarser texture than the true Levant 

 and Syrian varieties, which have a denser mesh and finer fibres. The forms vary from those 

 which are typically cup-shaped to a flattened Zimocca-like form, or to a mere aggregate of 

 fistular branches, which are generally more or less closely associated. The typical or cup- 

 shaped form is often open on the side, or even varies to an almost solid form, with the 

 excurrent orifice gathered into a hollow at the top. The fibre is fine and close and soft to 

 the touch, the tufts of the surface very small. It is prevalent in the Adriatic Sea, according 

 to Von Eckhel, and becomes identical farther south with the fine textured typical Turkey 

 Cup sponge, and the finest of all sponges, the Levant Toilet sponge, both of which are 

 included under the name of mollis sitna. 



Variety mollissima. 



Sp)ongia mollisima Schm., Op. cit., p. 23. 



This variety, PI. xvi, fig. 21, may be either cup-shaped or more or less solid, differing from 

 the other varieties simply in the fineness and extreme density of the closely woven fibx'es. 

 It was probably this which led Schmidt to separate it as a distinct form, but there are inter- 

 mediate varieties, which show that this is an incorrect conclusion. 



Variety tubidlformis (PI. xvi, fig. 20) may be either cup-shaped, or more or less of a solid 

 form, either lobed or fistular, but in all specimens the superficial bundles of fibres are very 

 long and numerous, giving the edges of excurrent apertures and the whole surface a very 

 hirsute aspect. 



Variety ziniocciformis. It may be well to describe another variety in which the peculiar 

 aspect of the upper surface and the typical saucer-shaped form of the Spongia agaricina, 

 sub-species Zimocca, is so closely imitated that some specimens might be mistaken for that 

 species, but in others the whole upper surfixce becomes flattened and table-like, and very 

 dense and smooth. 



The more solid specimens of variety iubidiformis, especially those of irregular shapes, 

 approximate in the young to the most open and least useful varieties of the Florida sponge, 

 sub-species iuhidifera. I cannot see, since Dr. Ehler's paper, why it is either necessary or 

 proper to liold to Schmidt's name of Sjiongia Adriatica. It was correct, so long as the 

 Esperian sponge was unknown, to drop the old name, which by too general application had 

 become useless, but now that we can return to this and give it an exact meaning, it be- 

 comes essential to retain it. 



Sub-species tubulifera. 



Spongia titbidifercc Lam., Anim. sans Vert., vol. ii, p. 363, 2d Ed. 



Sp>ongia tubidifera Duch. et Mich., Naturk. Verhand. Hollandische Maatsch. Wetensch. 

 Haarlem, 2 Verz. 21, 2, p. 34, i± 4. 1864. 



If any reader wishes to compare this variety as a whole with the sub-species 3fediterranea, 

 he will do well to contrast fig. 15 with fig. 21, fig. 13 with fig. 19, fig. 10 with fig. 20, and 

 especially fig. 16 with fig. 18. In every case these figures occur on PI. xvi, and the 



