thinks that living specimens were met with, and that they 

 are somewhere among the vast stores of good things collected 

 during the expedition. Professor Alexander Agassiz also 

 recognises Mr. Ford's drawing as that of a species taken by 

 Count Pourtales in his last expedition, and informs me that 

 all the sponges taken in the course of the coast survey 

 expeditions of America have been forwarded to Professor 

 Oscar Schmidt for description ; perhaps, therefore, we may 

 expect still another supplement to that most important and 

 useful work " Die Spongien des Adi'iatischen Meeres." If 

 so, I hope he will agree with me in considering this species 

 a good one, and that from better specimens and with his great 

 powers of drawing he will still further describe and illus- 

 trate it. 



3. On a new Genus and Species of Sponge from the Deep 

 Sea. (Plate II). 



In March, 1869, my friend Dr. Wallich, so Avell known 

 by his botanical and zoological writings, as well as by his 

 researches into the deej) sea fauna, gave me a small portion 

 of a minute s]3onge, of which three specimens had been 

 brought up from the great depth of 1913 fathoms, Avith the 

 request that I should describe it. I have to apologise to Dr. 

 Wallich for letting the summer pass over without fulfilling the 

 promise that I made to him. But there were tAvo difficulties in 

 my way. One was to have the most perfect of the three speci- 

 mens discovered drawn. This specimen had been presented 

 by Dr. Wallich along with a vast collection of Foraminifera, 

 Polycystina, Diatomacese, and Desmidiacese, to the Royal 

 Microscopical Society of London. The other difficulty was 

 to find out where to place the species when described. My 

 first difficulty has been surmounted — thanks to the Council of 

 the Royal Microscopical Society and their assistant-secretary 

 Mr. Reeves— by Mr. C. Stewart, F.L.S., of St. Thomas' Hos- 

 pital, to whose friendship I am indebted for the accompanying 

 very characteristic, faithful, and beautiful drawing. My 

 second difficulty I am not so sure of having as yet clearly 

 seen my way through. But to this I will allude more par- 

 ticularly a little further on. By the help of the enlarged 

 figure on Plate II, and the following description, I hope this 

 earliest discovered (October, 1860) of all the deep sea sponges 

 will be easily recognised. 



