28 SEA-SHORE LIFE 
dome-shaped, not more than eight inches in diameter, and the fibres 
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fig. 5,; Clam Shell infested with Boring 
Sponge, Long Island Sound. 
become brittle with age. 
Sponges are reproduced 
from eggs which develop into 
free swimming larve, but soon 
settle down upon the bottom 
and grow into the 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. XVII, 1897, 
p. 225-240. 
Among non-commercial sponges, the Red Sponge, (Microciona 
prolifera, Figs. 3,4), is found 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 brillant 
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, (Cliona 
sulphurea, lig. 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 

Fig. 6; THE FINGER SPONGE, Salem 
Harbor, Massachusetts. 
with galleries and holes, and finally growing over the outside. It 
is abundant along the shores from South Carolina to Cape Cod. 
