5 
of the network, and sooner on the convex than on the concave side 
of the bent cone. These ridges at first are short and interrupted ; 
they are then more extended, but irregular in their course, some 
being transverse, others undulated or curved ; but as they approach 
the base of the cone they are continued into broader ridges, which 
follow, with more or less regularity, the course of the oblique spiral 
fibres ; the broadest of these ridges would measure two lines and a 
half. Their structure presents an extremely fine and irregular net- 
work, disposed, for the most part, in two plates, which converge as 
they recede from the general wall of the cone, and terminate in a 
sharp and well-defined edge. ‘The component fibres of these reticu- 
lations, like those of the main network, are resolved into the fine 
silky filaments above mentioned. The fibres of the coarse irregular 
network which closes the basal aperture of the cone, and which con- 
stitutes the main characteristic of this Aleyonoid sponge, appear to 
be directly continued from, and, as it were, to include all those which 
enter into the composition of the longitudinal, transverse and ob- 
lique fibres of the wall of the cone; the frill-like ridge above de- 
scribed defining the line of transition from the one to the other. 
The inner surface of the reticulate parietes of the cone is even; not 
interrupted by any ridges or processes like those on the outer sur- 
face. The number of the longitudinal filaments at the base of the 
cone is 60; that at the smaller end, where they begin to resolve 
themselves into their constituent filaments, is 30. The diameter of 
the longitudinal fibres is about 3th of an inch; that of the trans- 
verse fibres is somewhat less. The oblique fibres, where they are 
most regular, average 75th of an inch; the longitudinal fibres, where 
they begin to resolve themselves into their component filaments, ex- 
pand in the direction of a line passing to the centre of the cone, and 
not in the direction of the plane of its circumference ; maintaining, in 
the latter respect, nearly the same breadth to their entire unraveling ; 
whilst in the other dimension they equal one line in breadth before 
they are wholly decomposed. Small portions of a finely reticulate 
plate were loosely attached to some parts of the internal surface. 
The fibres of these pieces consisted of minute filaments, irregular in 
their course, branching, anastomosing, and sending off abrupt pro- 
cesses like thorns. The component filaments of the parietal fibres 
are of two kinds ; the one simple, cylindrical, and smooth; the others 
barbed at pretty regular distances through their whole course, like 
the hair of certain caterpillars. I have also observed a long filament, 
simple at one extremity, and becoming barbed at the other. ‘They 
consist of material like the dried gluten of marine plants, containing 
a small proportion of azote, and burning away to a charry residuum. 
“If the basal aperture of the cone were open, the resemblance to 
many of the beautiful reticulate Aleyonoid sponges would be very 
close: its closure by the reticulate convex cap, in the present in- 
stance, establishes the generic distinction; and in the exquisite 
beauty and regularity of the texture of the walls of the cone the 
species surpasses any of the allied productions that I have, as yet, 
seen, or found described.” 
