386 Mr. 'T. Higgin on Labaria hemispheerica. 
As regards the present example, the only information given 
is that it was obtained by diving, off the island of Cebu ; but 
it is in a natural state, and has not been tampered with like 
the British-Museum specimen. 
In form it is ike a small bird’s nest the bottom of which 
is flat, with a well-defined edge; the sides are rounded; and 
the sponge attains its greatest diameter about one third of the 
way down from the edge of the hollow of the nest, towards 
the base. ‘The entire surface, inside and outside (speaking as 
of anest),is anetwork of spicules: that of the sides of the nest, 
being a close reticulation, is no doubt ‘ pore-area ;”’ whilst that 
of the hollow of the nest is a very much more open network, 
and must be considered ‘vent-area,” as has been stated by 
Mr. H. J. Carter in the paper to which I have already alluded. 
The structure covered by thesurface-reticulation, as seen through 
this network, is a strongly woven-together mass of spicules, 
pierced with large and small passages leading directly from 
the outside to the inside. ‘These passages or canals are largest 
towards the base of the sponge, where they are ovate in form, 
and measure in diameter half an inch by a quarter ; they ora- 
dually diminish in calibre and lose their oval shape, becoming 
circular towards the upper edge of the nest. The surface- 
reticulation is closest round the edge of the hollow; and 
from this edge stands up a thin bios line of erect spi- 
cules of irregular height, varymg from + to ? of an inch. 
The rounded sides of the sponge, chiedi where it assumes 
its greatest diameter, are furnished with whisker-like bundles 
of long spicules, which issue from circular holes the edges 
of which are slightly raised, each bundle consisting of a 
dozen or more spicules, many of which are broken short off 
and very few are entire. Around the circumference of the 
base are arranged loose fascicles of anchoring-spicules from 
3 to 4 inches in length and having a diameter of about? 4 an 
inch measuring along the edge of the base, by 7 to 2 of an 
inch across it. A few scattered short spicules project here 
and there from the base generally; but there are no bundles 
other than those around its edge; and ther efore the sponge is 
without any thing like the “ fraudulent tuft” stuck into the 
British-Museum specimen, or occupying its position. The 
bundles of anchoring-spicules, whilst the sponge was in a 
living state, no doubt grew straight down from its base into 
the bottom of the sea; but they are now twisted under it, in 
consequence of the sponge having been placed to dry in the 
position in which it appears in the Plate. 
The anchoring-spicules are of one kind only, viz. smooth, 
fusiform, terminating at the free end in two opposite hooks ; ; 
