SPONGIA. 167 



perfecte sanata, dilatanda et quamdiu opus est aperta te lenda, 

 et ad putrida exsiccaiida. Ustarum cinere veteres usi sunt ad 

 ocularia medicamenta, et ubi quid extergere opus est. Plerique 

 recentiores Medici iisdem Spongige cineribus ex vino albo pro- 

 pinatis utuntur in cura bronchoceles, toto unius Luna? curriculo> 

 certissima experientia." Hist. Plant, i. p. 81. 



1. S. PULCHELLA, amo7'phous, consisting of Jinely reti- 

 culated shnple fibres ; the meshes quadrangular^ minute ; the 

 fibre smooth and without spicula. 



Plate XIX. Fig. 1. 2. 



Spongia pulchella, Sowerbi/fDrit. Misc. 87, pi. 43. Jamesun in 

 Wern. Mem. i. 562. Turt. Brit. Faun. 208. Montagu in 

 Wern. Mem. ii. 109. Gray, Brit. Plants, i. 359. Flem. Brit. 

 Anim. 524. Tenipleton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 471. Bellamifs 

 S. Devon, 268. 



Hub. Ireland, 3Ir Brown. North Wales, Rev. H. Davies. 

 On the shores of several of the Western isles of Scotland, 

 Jameson. Hartlepool, J. Hogg. Coast of Berwickshire. G. 

 J. Found on the shore near Carrickfergus, Templeton. Ply- 

 mouth, J. C. Bellamy. /^ 



Sponge generally arising from a circumscribed or narrow 

 base, massive, very irregular and variable in its shape, but most- 

 ly conformed into sinuous crests and ridges, " although some- 

 times approaching to a fan-shape, and sometimes rather palmate 

 or digitate," yoUowish-brown, light and elastic, delicately reti- 

 culate. The principal fibres composing the network have a 

 longitudinal and parallel course, running from the base or centre 

 to the circumference, but these are connected with numerous cross 

 threads so as to form small quadrangular or rarely pentagonal 

 meshes : the fibres smooth, pellucid and tubular, capillary or a 

 little swollen at the points of inosculation. Vents scattered, 

 small, even with the surface, and hence, in some specimens, in- 



