294 • Mr. H. J. Carter on some West-Indian 



The Sjiiculation of Ilymeniacidon macilento^ Bk. (which is 

 also an Esperia)^ obtained from the most insigniticant " frag- 

 ments " in point of size, of which " the largest piece only 

 slightly exceeded an inch in length, and was about three lines 

 in width " (B. S. vol. ii. p. 17G), such as I have often found 

 here (Budleigh Salterton) about the roots of Lammaria digi- 

 tata, seems to me but a variety of Esperia (EhapModesma) 

 Jlorea, in which all three of the flesli-spicules are present, 

 viz. inequianchorate, bihamate, and tricurvate (B. S. vol. iii. 

 pi. xxxiii. tigs. 7-13). ^''llJiapliiodesma'''' (Dr. Bowerbank's 

 last generic name for Es])erian sponges) simpjh'ssiinum (B. S. 

 vol. iii. pi. xe. figs, l-o) is evidently from the S])iculation no 

 Esperia at all, while Desmacidun Totalis in the same ]date 

 (figs. 8-14) undoubtedly is one, and the great length of the 

 head of the anchorate relatively considered (that is, in propor- 

 tion to the size of the other parts) a characteristic feature, 

 especially as the figure is that of a fuU-cjroivn anchorate 

 magnified upon the same scale as that of B. Jioreuin^ Bk., 

 viz. " X 530 linear," and not a minute incipient form. Here 

 again the skeletal spicule is simply acuate ; and the structure 

 represented in fig. 9 is evidently that of the lace-like dermal 

 layer characteristic of an Esperia^ to which I have alluded. 

 In R, sordidum (pi. Ixxvi. figs. 13-19) we seem to have an 

 insignificant specimen, wdiich is only a slight variety in s]n- 

 culation of 11. Jioreum, wherein the tricurvate has been more 

 strongly developed, while Ii. lingua (pi. Ixxvii.), in the com- 

 paratively greater length of the arms of the smaller end of the 

 inequianchorate (fig. 4), does present a characteristic form, 

 although the head of the skeleton-spieule (fig. 2) should in- 

 stead of acuate be sub-pinlike, i. e. elliptic, inflated in the 

 centre, skittle-shaped ; for the average is so in the type specimen^ 

 which, as a Avhole, appears, as before stated, to derive its 

 general tongue-shaped form from having been squeezed up in 

 the hand after it was drawn on board in a comminuted state. 

 Still, such is the rigidity of the fibro-skeletal structure in many 

 instances, that if there had been any present some would 

 have remained to testify to the fact ; hence we may infer that 

 the structure was always soft, as it now is, like that of the 

 West-Indian specimen above described. Beviewing thus all 

 that has been put forward by Dr. Bowerbank, together with 

 my own actual experience, I see no indication, from the spicu- 

 latioHj of there being in his ' Monograph of the British 

 Spongiadffi ' any more than two well-characterized species of 

 Esj)e7-ia, viz. Ilhapiiiodesmajloreimi and R. lingua. 



But that there are more British species of Esperia^ my 

 examination of the sponges dredged on board II. M.S. ' Por- 



