8 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Subspherous Sjjonges. 



cules of the body straight, smooth, fusifomi subulate — that is, 

 awl-shaped, with one end round ; of different degrees of tenuity, 

 but probably all subulate. Stellate spicules of two kinds, large 

 and small or minute : large stellate spicule smooth, consisting 

 of a clear globule of silex more or less covered with tubercular 

 projections supporting a variable number of conical pointed 

 rays, which are frequently more or less undulated, and some- 

 times bifurcated, at the extremity ; situated chiefly at the 

 union of the cortex with the body : minute stellate spicules 

 consisting, in like manner, of a central globule, from Avhich 

 project a variable number of rough subspinous rays ; found 

 in abundance throughout the whole structm-e, particularly in 

 the lines of the afferent or incurrent (?) canals, and the outer 

 part of tlie cortex. Size of specimen figured about an inch in 

 diameter when fresh. Colour dull sponge- or amber-yellow, 

 most evident in the fleshy substance of the body. 



Hcib. England, Devon, Budleigh-Salterton beach. Marine, 

 place of growth to me unknown. 



Ohs. About three years since, several of these were found 

 on the beach at Budleigh-Salterton, having by some means 

 been wrenched from their place of growth and thrown up (I 

 think in the autumn) among other exuviae. They were 

 brought to me quite fresh on the same day that they were 

 found ; but their place of growth is to me as yet unknown. I 

 could discover no gemmules or reproductive bodies in them 

 like those observed in Tetliya arabica ; and the afferent and 

 efferent canals can only be traced by placing a thin vertical 

 section of the cortex (after having been compressed while dry- 

 ing) in balsam, when the minute stellate spicules almost alone 

 mark their course, on account of the homogeneousness of the 

 structure and plastic consistence of its elementary tissues 

 through which they pass, and in which, on this account, they 

 appear to exist as mere canalicular excavations. In short, the 

 fibres of the cortex are so soft, plastic, and delicate, that on 

 drying they all collapse into a common mass, in which indi- 

 vidually they become indistinguishable. 



It might be observed that the abundance of minute stellate 

 spicules in the afferent canals are for the purpose of straining 

 the water as it passes through them into the body of the 

 sponge ; but it must be first proved that they are in the afferent 

 or incurrent, and not in the efferent canals, before this opinion 

 can be held j and then it can only be conjectural. 



Pachymatisma Johnstonia^ Bowerbank. PI. II, figs. 7-18. 



Subglobular, tuberose. Surface hard, or covered with a soft 

 dermal sarcode (where not abraded) densely charged with 



