450 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [744] 



HALISARCA ?, Species undetermined, a. 



Watch Hill, Rhode Island, 4 to 5 fathoms. Forms small, soft, some- 

 what gelatinous masses, on red algae. (See p. 498.) 



SUBERITES COMPACTA Verrill, sp. nov. 



This species is remarkable for the comp'actness of its tissues and the 

 smallness of the canals and pores permeating its substance, as well as 

 for the large size of the plates and crest-like lobes in which it grows. 

 A transverse section of the dried sponge shows very numerous irregular 

 canals, most of them not larger than pin-holes (or less than 0.15 rara 

 in diameter). The tissue is very compact throughout, but is more dense 

 close to the surface, which is nearly smooth, the oscules being small and 

 inconspicuous. The spicules are very abundant, crowded, very slender, 

 mostly pin-shaped (spinulate), with the point very acute and the " head" 

 but little enlarged, and often largest a slight distance from the end, so 

 as to give the head a slightly ovate form. Color, when living, bright 

 yellow. 



Off Martha's Vineyard, 10 ftithoms, sand ; Nantucket ; Eastern Shore 

 of Virginia. 



This is the species described as a u firm siliceous sponge, 7 ' on page 

 503. In general appearance it somewhat resembles Suberites suberea 

 Gray (Hymeniacidon suberea Bowerbank). 



OLIONA SULPHUREA Verrill. (p. 421.) 



Spongia sulphured Desor, Proc. Bostou Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. iii, p. 68, 1848. 

 South Carolina to Cape Cod ; local farther north. Great Egg Harbor, 

 New Jersey ; very abundant in Long Island Sound and Vineyard Sound, 

 on oysters and various other shells, 1 to 15 fathoms. Portland Harbor, 

 Maine, in sheltered localities (C. B. Fuller). 



? POLYMASTIA ROBUSTA Bowerbank. (p. 497.) 



British Spongiadje, vol. i, p. 178, Plate 29, fig. 358 ; vol. ii, p. 62, 1866. 



Off Gay Head, 18 to 20 fathoms; common in Casco Bay and Bay of 

 Fundy, 8 to 70 fathoms. Coast of Great Britain (Bowerbank). 



The American specimens do not agree in all respects with the descrip- 

 tion, and may prove to be distinct when a direct comparison can be 

 made. In. our specimens the surface is finely hispid ; the dermal tissue is 

 firm, and filled with small, slender, often curved, needle-shaped (" acuate"), 

 and pin-shaped ( u spinulate") spicules, which project from the surface. 

 The latter form is the predominant one, but the u head" is very small, 

 and they pass gradually into the former kind, in which the u head " is 

 obsolete, or not larger than the shaft. The spicules of the large, radi- 

 ating fascicles in the body of the sponge are long and large, needle- 

 shaped, with the central portion thickest ("fusiformi-acuate"). The 

 large spicules in the longitudinal fascicles of the cloacal fistula} are of 

 the same form ; the secondary fascicles of the body and the transverse 

 secondary spicules of the fistulas also have the same form, though much 



