80 SPONGILLA LORDII. 
from their root-hold to the water-level, a length of 
two feet, and often more. This spongilla Professor 
Bowerbank has kindly described for me since my 
return. I cannot do better than append the 
Professor’s description :— 
‘SPONGILLA LORDII (Bowrrsant, N. 8.) 
‘Sponge sessile; coating surface even, smooth; oscula simple, 
dispersed. Pores inconspicuous ; dermal membrane pellucid, aspi- 
culous; skeleton specula, acerate. Ovaries congregated on the 
basal membrane, very numerous; specula entirely spined, fusiform, 
cylindrical, dispersed on the surface. Basal membrane abundantly 
spiculous ; specula dispersed same as those of the ovaries. Colour 
ochreous, yellow to green. Examined in the dried state. 
‘The sponge embraces the stems of a large 
species of reed for eight or ten inches of its 
length, and is about six or nine lines in greatest 
thickness. In its general habit, and the struc- 
ture of its skeleton, it closely resembles our Bri- 
tish Fluviatilis; but it differs from that species in 
the mode of disposition and structural peculiari- 
ties of the ovaries, which more closely resemble 
those of our British species S. lacustris, but 
from which it differs in haying the specula of 
the ovaries nearly straight, while those of the 
last-named species are usually arcuate. The 
dermal membrane of S. lacustris also abounds in 
entirely-spined tension specula, while that of S. 
Lordii is aspiculous. 
