44 Mr. H. J. Carter on Specimens 



Obs. This species is well-characterized by the bent spicules, 

 many of which present different degrees of smoothness in pro- 

 portion to the amount of development, which ends in their 

 becoming thickly spinous throughout. 



Microciona fascispiculifera, n. sp. 

 (PL IV. fig. 7, a-g.) 



Laminiform, extremely thin, hirsute, spreading, covered 

 with little bundles of spicules of different lengths respectively 

 (PI. IV. fig. 7, g) . Cream-colour. Spicules of four forms, 

 viz. : — 1, long, setaceous, smooth, acuate, curved chiefly 

 towards the blunt end, which is not differentiated from the 

 shaft, 70 by lf-1800th (fig. 7, a) ; 2, acerate, hair-like, 

 in bundles, of different lengths below 20-1800ths (fig. 7, 

 Cjd)\ 3, spined acuate, 5-1800ths long (fig. 7, b and e) ; 

 4, minute, simple, bihamate, 2-6000ths (fig. 7, /). Nos. 

 1 and 3 project from a layer formed of nos. 2 and 4, the 

 former in sheaf-shaped bundles of various dimensions lying 

 on the surface. Size variable ; that of the specimen about 

 \ inch in horizontal diameter. 



Hab. Marine. On hard objects. 



Loc. Gulf of Manaar. 



Obs. This species is also well characterized, viz. by 

 the fasciculi of hair-like spicules, which respectively vary 

 from l-3000th to l-90th inch in length, and by reflected 

 light under the microscope look very much like minute white 

 sawdust, for which, at first, I mistook them, partly on account 

 of the specimens having been packed in this material that had 

 more or less adhered to them. It is not the first time that I 

 have found a hair-like spiculation of this kind in Microciona, as 

 may be seen by a reference to the illustration of M. minutula 

 (' Annals,' 1876, vol. xviii. p. 239, mendose script. " pusilla" 

 pi. xvi. fig. 51, &c.) . — N.B. Never pack sponges in cotton wool 

 or sawdust, but place them at once in spirit and water in a 

 jar or keg, with a vellum label on them written in black-lead 

 pencil. 



The presence of sheaf-shaped fasciculi of hair-like spicules 

 looking, as just stated, like minute sawdust by reflected light 

 PI. IV. fig. 7, g) is a very common feature in different species 

 of Esperia, where they often appear to replace the tricurvates. 

 I delineated them first in 1871 (' Annals,' vol. vii. pi. iv. 

 fig. 22), in Stelletta lactea, and again in Esperia social is (ib. ib. 

 pi. xvii. fig. 7, d, p. 277). Finally in 1874 ('Annals,' vol. xiv. 

 p. 104) I conjectured not only that they were produced in cells 

 like tricurvates similarly developed (ib. ib. pi. x. figs. 3-8), but 



