834 REPOoRT—1868. 
Taken in company with Jsodictya laciniosa in 170 fathoms, 20-25 
miles N. by W. of Burrafirth Lighthouse, in 1867, and again in 1868. 
A very large and thick species, growing in flat lobate masses. The 
largest piece in my collection measures 11 inches’ long by 63 in its 
greatest breadth. 
Genus OceanaprA*, Norman, n.g. 
Sponge consisting of a hollow sphere filled with sarcode, surrounded by a 
hard spongeous crust of a very close and compact nature. From the oppo- 
site poles of the axis of the spherical or ovate body of the sponge there spring 
more or less numerous simple or branched fistule of great size and length ; 
these fistulae are also furnished at their base with prolongations, which, pass- 
ing inwards into the central cavity of the sponge in the form of cylindrical 
branching tubes, are bathed in the great sarcodous mass. Skeleton spiculo- 
fibrous, irregularly reticulated ; fibres polyspiculous, the primary lines, especi- 
ally of the fistula, of great size. Spicula acerate, stout (Bowerbank, pl. i. 
fig. 2) and very minute, in the form of half a ring, “simple bihamate ” 
(Bowerbank, pl. y. fig. 109). Dermal membrane reticulate; rete for the 
most part unispiculous; spicula of the same two kinds as those of the 
skeleton. 
Occeanapia Jeffreysti (Bow.)=Desmacidon Jeffreysii, Bow. Brit. Spongiade, 
vol. ii. p. 347, =Isodictya robusta, ib. id. p. 304. 
In 1861 I dredged a portion of the spherical crust of this sponge, 
from which the fistule had been abraded. This having been placed in 
Dr. Bowerbank’s hands, was considered by him to belong to the genus 
Isodictya, and is described in his work under the name J. robusta. In 
subsequent expeditions to Shetland I obtained many detached fistule, 
and also portions of the crust, which convinced me that the entire sponge, 
when found, would prove to be something very different from what had 
been imagined by Dr. Bowerbank from the type specimen. In 1864 
some of the fistulae were forwarded by Mr. Peach to Dr. Bowerbank, 
who regarded them as a new species of Desmacidon (D. Jeffreysit). At . 
length, during the past summer, several perfect specimens of the sponge 
have been dredged, and it is thus proved to be a remarkable species, 
perhaps the most interesting, as it is also one of the largest of British 
Porifera. 
In form and size the adult sponge most strikingly reminds us of a full- 
grown swede turnip. Imagine such a turnip to be going to seed, and to 
have sent up several shoots. Now break these shoots off 4 or 5 inches 
from the bulb, strip off the leaves as well as the smaller fibrous por- 
tions of the roots, and scoop out all the interior of the turnip, leaving 
only the rind, and you will have a very fair idea of Oceanapia. The 
rind represents the spongeous crust; the hollow interior is a cup filled 
with sarcode; the broken off stems are the cloacsee, which are of about 
the size and shape of a finger, the smaller specimens having sometimes 
only one, but the larger as many as a dozen such cloacal fistule of 
various sizes, which are generally simple, more rarely branched. The 
roots of the turnip represent other fistular appendages of smaller size 
than those which spring from the crown, and of more solid and stringy 
texture. These appear literally to take the place of roots, since in one 
instance they grasp a pebble with their extremities, and in other cases 
* Oceanus and napus, a turnip, 
