86 
taste by the late Dutch governor, General Ryder, stationed at the 
Moluccas. It included many of extreme rarity and beauty ; amongst 
others, I had the honour of bringing to this country a beautiful new 
species of the glassy Nautilus, equal im size to the Carinaria vitrea 
that has been seen in this country, a wax model of which has been 
exhibited in the British Museum for many years, taken from the 
original, and I believe unique, specimen in the Museum at the ‘ Jar- 
din des Plantes,’ Paris. 
«“Mr. Cuming has kindly furnished me with the above locality, 
having met with a few specimens of the Corbis Soverbii in his re- 
searches amongst the Philippines, at the island of Negros.” 
The next paper read was from Mr. Stutchbury, and is entitled, 
« Description of a new Sponge from Barbadoes.” 
«The Museum of the Bristol Institution having lately become pos- 
sessed of a very interesting sponge through the liberality of Dr. 
Cutting, of Barbadoes, to whom we are also indebted for the ‘ recent’ 
Pentacrinus, ‘recent’ Pholadomya, and numerous other valuable do- 
nations; and as this tribe has met with the able attention of micro- 
scopists, whose researches appear to have excited considerable inter- 
est ;—1 have thought a brief account of the specimen would be ac- 
ceptable to naturalists.” 
“The peculiarities of this very beautiful sponge consist in the 
following distinctive characters; the most remarkable of which 
is, its being formed entirely of silex, the reticulate structure of the 
mass being composed of transparent vitreous tubuli, without any 
admixture of keratose or calcareous matter; the silex forming the 
mass itself, and not, as in other instances, arranged as spicula in the 
horny membranes; consequently, it is perfectly rigid and sonorous 
when struck, 
«‘ When viewed by a simple lens it exhibits a frothy glass-like 
appearance : under a magnifying power of seventy-five linear, the 
net-like meshes are seen to be composed of beautiful glassy tubes, 
anastomosing one with the other in every direction, the external 
surface of the cylinders having a rugged aspect; the newer or last 
formed portions appear to emanate from centres, and at certain 
distances from spherical masses, from which straight tubes again 
arise, thus forming the reticulate structure. 
“ Amidst the interstices of the sponge are found numerous small 
bodies loose and unattached (also composed of silex*), characterized 
by Ehrenberg under the generic appellation of Xanthidium, of which 
several species in a fossil state are described as occurring in flints 
and other siliceous minerals; this minute body may be described as 
* In testing the mineral character of the sponge a small portion was ex- 
amined under the microscope; then placed in a test tube, and upon the ad- 
dition of dilute hydrochloric acid no effervescence occurred: it was then 
dried, and again placed in the field of-the microscope, when no change ap- 
peared to have taken place; upon submitting it to the action of the blow- 
pipe, the only alteration was its losing its glassy aspect by becoming opake, 
but it was not altered in’ form. 
