and Acajpulco Sponges. 283 



from the slieaf-like bundles, thus testify to their original deve- 

 lopment in pJurah'tii in a cell, and subsequent enlargement in 

 the sarcode. There is a specimen of this sponge in the British 

 Museum, numbered 216, also supposed to come from the West 

 Indies, which, from its weather-worn condition, appears in 

 like manner to have been picked up on a beach. Its spicula- 

 tion and structure entitle it, like the next species, to a place 

 among the Fibulifera, the sheaf-like spicules being con- 

 sidered an adjunct. 



Fibularia ramosa^ n. sp. 



Stipitate, subcjlindrical, solid, simple or branched irregu- 

 larly. Texture loose, light, fragile. Colour brown. Surface 

 uniformly reticulate, ending towards the free extremity of the 

 branches in little plumose tufts, which are the terminations of 

 the tibro-skeleton. Structure internally plumose, radiating, 

 fragile, composed of spiculo-fibre tympanized in its reticula- 

 tion by the sarcode. Spicules of two kinds, viz. : — 1, skeletal, 

 smooth, acerate, curved, fusiform, pointed at each end, about 

 bb by l^-GOOOth inch in its greatest dimensions (PI. XI. 

 fig. 12, a); 2, flesh-spicule, bihamate, smooth, minute, C- 

 shaped, sigmoid, about 4-60L)0ths inch long (tig. 12, b). N^o. 1 

 is chietly conhned to the fibro-skeleton, and 2 plentifully scat- 

 tered throughout the sarcode. Size of largest stem, fragment 

 or branch (for it is much broken up in pieces), about 7 by 

 I inch in its greatest dimensions. 



Hah. Marine. 



Log. Puerto Cabello. 



Ohs. The delicate structure and spiculation of this species 

 claim for it a place in the group Fibulifera, wherein the tibre 

 is almost solely composed of proper spicules. Like the speci- 

 mens of this species in the British Museum, viz. no. 206, reg. 

 no. 41. 3. 16. 9, and no. 412, both of which come from the 

 West Indies, it is plentifully infested by the isolated polyp 

 [Bcr<jia) on the surtuce. 



Fibularia ancJiorata, n. sp. 



Massive, leathery, lobed, sessile. Texture tougli, resilient. 

 Colour yellowish brown. Suiface uniformly covered with a 

 wrinkled dermal structure in relief, whose lines are rough and 

 muricated, tympanized in the intervals by the dermal sarcode. 

 Vents large, chiefly on the prominent parts of the lobes. Struc- 

 ture internally more or less cavernous, from the presence of 

 large fencstral portions of membranous thick sarcode, which 

 stretch across the intervals between the more compact parts ; 

 sarcode and tibre charged with the spicules of the species, 



