106 Mr. H. J. Carter on a new Species ofAplysina 



dark brown-red coloured plasma (fig. 13), in which may also 

 be observed a few colourless, scmiopaque, albuminoid concre- 

 tionary masses, each of which, too, seems to be in a cell. 



The spongozoa may now and then be also observed in 

 aggregated groups with the rostrum and cilium extended, 

 together with two ear-like projections, one on each side of the 

 cilium, indicative of the remains of the " collar" (fig. 12). 



Size of specimen varying with that over which the sponge 

 may be growing, the one figured about 1 inch long by half 

 an inch thick ; horny stellates about l-15th, ova about 1-1 20th, 

 and spongozoon about 1 -3000th of an inch in diameter re- 

 spectively. 



Hah. Marine, growing over the shells of living mussels 

 {Modiola alMcosta ?) and on the empty shells of Solen. 



Loc. Cies Islands, Vigo Bay (W. S. Kent, Esq.)- 



Ohs. The chief distinguishing character of this species is 

 the stellate form assumed by the filaments of the horny 

 skeleton. It also differs from the specimen of A. carnosa 

 dredged up by Mr. Kent in the same locality in the following 

 particulars. A. carnosa is more fleshy, solid, and smooth, has 

 no part of the horny skeleton projecting through the aculeations 

 or any other part of the surface ; no appearance of holes or 

 small vents on the surface, from the dermal sarcode being too 

 thick and opaque to allow the cavities of the cancellous or 

 areolated structure beneath to be seen through it ; and, for tlie 

 same reason, here and there, where the surface is reticulated, 

 the reticulations are more like superficial rug£e ; the mammi- 

 form projections are flattened, and the vents sunk in the centre 

 instead of being at the end of conical eminences as in A. cor- 

 neostellata. In short, altogether A. carnosa is a coarser form 

 with a dark violet colour and opaque appearance. 



I have not seen a portion of Lnffaria that has been preserved 

 in the wet state ; but we learn from De Fonbressin and 

 Michelotti (p. 58, ojj. cit.) that they are all black, brown, or 

 yellow — and when dry all black, which is the case with those 

 in the British Museum on which the sarcode still remains. 

 The sarcode is black, or, rather, blue-black now, more like the 

 colour of ink, and the colour of the horny fibre more or less 

 brown or yellow. When the latter is transparent and held 

 between the eye and the light, it presents an amber-like ap- 

 pearance with a whitish core in the interior, round like the 

 fibre, but very much less in diameter than the thickness even 

 of the wall of the fibre. 



The opposite of the latter is the case with the Aplysince 

 (see fig. 7) ; and herein, together with their sessile spreading 

 o-rowth and comparatively diminutive size, they contrast 



