aeenty icrosconna | = Royal Microscopical Society. 249 
unknown silicious sponge. In his Monograph of the British Spon- 
giadee, Dr. Bowerbank has bestowed upon it the name above given; 
and has since, in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 
1869, figured the numerous minute sarcode spicula belonging to 
it. At the same time the essential basal skeleton of this sponge 
has hitherto only been obtained in a fragmentary condition, and it 
affords me much pleasure to give here a representation of its 
external form in its perfect state. ‘The specimen figured was com- 
pletely immersed in the hardened mud filling up the interstices 
of a dead mass of Lophohelia prolifera var. anthophyllites, and 
necessarily required some careful manipulation in its extrication. 
As will be observed, the skeleton of this sponge is composed of 
a series of infundibular netted tubuli branching out from one an- 
other and occasionally coalescing. In the condition in which it 
was taken, it was almost too much to expect to find the spicula 
of the sarcode also upon it, and such proved to be the case; but 
as that portion of its history has already been made known to us 
by Dr. Bowerbank, this circumstance was of minor importance ; 
and we deemed ourselves only too fortunate to obtain the basal 
scaffolding intact. The figures of the sarcode spicula accompany- 
ing the illustration of this specimen, are copied from those by Dr. 
Bowerbank, given in his Monograph of the Siliceo-fibrous sponges 
in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1869. 
Aulodictyon Woodwardi, W. 8. Kent, nov. gen.* et sp. 
From among the branches of the same mass of Lophohelia 
prolifera, which has already been referred to as yielding me so 
many new forms, I have yet to record another one, which in addi- 
tion to being a new species must constitute the type of a new genus. 
This sponge occurs in small fistulose ramifications, bridging 
over the minor interspaces between the branches of the coral to 
which it is attached. It possesses a certain exterior resemblance 
to Farrea, but differs from it in the following particulars :—In 
Farrea the basal skeleton is composed of a single reticulated lamina, 
in the sarcode investing which, according to Dr. Bowerbank, 
verticillato-stellate spicula and other minute forms are found. In 
Aulodictyon, on the contrary, the basal skeleton consists of a 
complex reticulated tube, between and continuous with the primary 
meshes of which, an abundant network of coalescing simple hex- 
radiate stellate spicula occurs (see Plate LXIV., Fig. 20): the minuter 
spicula of the sarcode are again of an entirely different type. These 
are also represented in the Plate. Most remarkable among them 
are the long attenuate forms, /.c. Fig. 21, having one extremity 
inflated and reflecto-peltate with a dentate margin, and the other 
attenuately and finely acuminate ; these seem to fulfil the part of 
* avAds, a tube; Sixrvov, a net. 
