468 Mr. H. J. Carter on Deep-sea 



formed into tliis structure pari passu with tlie growth or in- 

 crease in bulk of the sponge. 



The reason for my designating this sponge "Pfeifferoi " is 

 evident from what I liave above stated ; and we may now ex- 

 tend its distribution from Madeira to the coast of Portugal. 



Calcarea. 



Grantia ciliata^ Fleming,? var. spinispiculum. 

 (PI. XII. figs. 6, 7, & 8.) 



The specimen of this calcareous sponge dredged up on 

 board the ' Porcupine ' on the North-Sea side of Shetland in 

 64-75 fathoms has grown on one of the cones of DicUjocylin- 

 drus virgultosus^ Bk., together with a young specimen of 

 Tethya cranium (PI. XII. fig. 6). It is |-|- inch long by -jV 

 inch broad. The body is fusiform 5 and the beard, which is -\ 

 inch wide, is composed of an erect row of large, acerate, linear 

 spicules arranged parallel to each other, intermixed with 

 small triradiates, and ending in a defined free edge, which is 

 neither patulous nor fringed, but even ; while the body itself 

 is composed of the usual mass of triradiates, among which are 

 plentifully scattered long, fusiform, stout acerates, which are 

 grouped together in projecting tufts all over the surface, thus 

 presenting a granulated aspect, in which tufts, especially 

 towards the lower part of the sponge, are fine acerate spicules 

 recurvedly barbed or spined in a serrated manner, chiefly on 

 one side of the outer third of the free end (fig. 7) . This form 

 of spicule, which averages, in its largest size, 124- by 

 1 -6000th inch long, and of which about a third is barbed, is 

 a peculiarity that has necessitated my giving a short descrip- 

 tion of the whole sponge, not only because such a form of 

 spicule is present here^ but because I have met with a similar 

 form before, in connexion with a specimen of Grantia ciliata 

 obtained from a piece of sea-weed thrown up on the beach of 

 this place (Budleigh-Salterton, south coast of Devon). 



In July 1870, while looking at some spicules of Grantia 

 ciliata which had been mounted about two years previously, 

 I observed that there were two or three linear ones with one 

 end inflated and spined on one side, something like the end 

 of the spined anchoring-spicules of EnpJectella aspergillum, 

 together with other recurved spines like barbs, extended more 

 or less in the same line for a certain distance up the shaft ; 

 while, knowing that calcareous spicules mounted in balsam 

 sooner or later pass into dissolution, leaving behind them only 

 a few aqueous-looking globules, I immediately measured and 



