285 
to our Knowledge of the Spongida. 
the flesli-spicule only. In 1870, Mr. Clifton wrote from Port¬ 
land (Engl.) to Dr. Gray concerning this sponge (I possess 
the note) as follows :—“ Some I dredged up ; and others I 
secured on the beach after heavy gales. They are very com¬ 
mon, and in some instances are over 6 feet in length, and 
when alive of a bright red colour.” Finally, in 1873 (Proc. 
Zool. Soc. p. 321, pi. xxix.), Dr. Bowerbank gave a descrip¬ 
tion, with most accurate illustrations, of this sponge (having 
been drawn on stone by his faithful artist, the late Mr. Lens 
Aldous), under the name of I)ictyocylindrus dentatus ; but as 
Dr. Gray’s name of Axos Cliftoni is more applicable than 
Dictyocylindrus, Bk.,to the nature and structure of the sponge 
(simply because it is not a Dictyocylindrus, Bk.*), and pos¬ 
sesses the priority of half a dozen years, I shall adopt Dr. Gray’s 
name as the generic appellation of those new species which I 
am about to describe. But before doing this it is desirable, for 
comparison, that I should briefly allude to the figures of the 
skeleton and flesh-spicules respectively of Axos Cliftoni in the 
dried state (PI. XXVI. figs. 5, 6, a-c ). 
Thus the skeleton-spicule (fig. 5) is long, acuate, smooth, 
curved and sharp-pointed, l-360th by l-1800th inch in its 
greatest dimensions; and the flesh-spicule (fig. 6, a), which is 
stelliform and crucially sexradiate, has, when fully developed, 
a globular body surrounded by six thick short arms, equidis¬ 
tant from each other, and each arm terminated by four or 
more comparatively large spines, or with the arms thinner, 
expanded at their point of union in the centre, and terminated 
respectively at their free ends by a globular head, which is 
microspined (fig. 6, b) —both originating in small, simple, 
smooth-armed, sexradiate stars (fig. 6, c), from which every 
grade of development may be traced to the first-described form, 
which, in size, is l-1200th inch in diameter, and, so far as is 
known, as remarkable as it is unique in figure. 
Axos flabelliformis, n. sp. (PI. XXVI. figs. 1-4.) 
Flabelliform, plicate, papyraceous, sessile, aculeated over 
the surface, especially on the margin, which is undulating, 
* The applicability of Dr. Gray’s name in other respects may be learned 
from the following prefatory paragraph taken from his proposed ar¬ 
rangement of the Spongida, viz.:—“ I may state that many of the names 
used for the genera have no derivations, "but are mere fortuitous combi¬ 
nations of letters ; so that compilers of indices of genera need not attempt 
to find derivations for them, or to correct the formation of some of them, 
as being more consistent with the derivations they may gratuitously 
assign to them, as has been done with some generic names of the same 
kind by Agassiz and others.” (Gray, “Notes on the Arrangement of 
Sponges,” P. Z. S., May 9,1807, p. 500.) 
