350 MK. ALBANY HANCOCK ON 



shorter than the first, and has one end truncate, the other pointed, 

 and is decidedly bent in the centre. 



Sponge in a dried state of a yellowish-brown colour. 



C. lobata. PI. XVI, fig. 6. 



Spicula of two kinds : the first to o"th of an inch long, not very 

 slender, mostly a little bent, and brought gradually to a sharp 

 point at one end; the other with an irregularly rounded head, 

 sometimes slightly elliptical, and generally not exactly terminal : 

 the second hind, which is shsth of an inch long, is cylindrical, 

 rather stout, arched, and zigzagged, being six or seven times angu- 

 lated, it is strongly spined, particularly at the angles; the extre- 

 mities are obtuse. 



I am indebted to Mr. Charles Adamson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 for the second specimen I have seen of this very distinct species. 

 It is in the shell of an oyster obtained from the rocks on the west 

 coast of Scotland. The dried sponge is of a dark snuff colour. 



After a careful perusal of the above descriptions of the spicula 

 few naturalists, I believe, will doubt the existence of more than 

 one species of British excavating sponge. 



The foreign species, which are undoubtedly very numerous, 

 exhibit a considerable variety of spicula, though the prevailing 

 forms are similar to those found in the British species. A few 

 have only the pin-like kind — in this respect resembling C. celata ; 

 but far the greater number have either two or three kinds as in 

 C. lobata and C. Northumbrica. The following descriptions are 

 of four well-marked foreign species that have recently come under 

 my notice. 



C. vermife-ra. PI. XVII, fig. 2. 



Sponge when dry of a pale yellow-ochre colour ; branches 

 crowded and confused, composed of a series of irregular, elon- 

 gated lobes, about rVths of an inch wide, which communicate 

 with each other by constricted stems : papillae not numerous, 

 varying in size, the largest about rVth of an inch wide. Spicula 

 of two kinds : one, xo~oth of an inch long, is pin-like, unusually 

 stout, mostly a little bent, with the head terminal, broadly ovate, 



