BAPHIODBSMA. 163 



texture of ttis sponge is totally different from ttat of 

 any other species with wliioh I ana acquainted. It 

 has very much the appearance as though a mass of 

 short pieces of tow had been subjected to great 

 pressure so as to unite them together. It is only 

 found in very deep water. In 1867 I dredged it in 

 company with the type specimen of Isodidya laciniosa 

 in 170 fathoms, twenty to twenty-five miles north by 

 west of Burrafirth Lighthouse, Shetland. 



3. Raphiodesma simplioissimum, Bow., hi, 324, PI. XC, 

 figs. 1—3. 



Habitat. — Filling up the interstices between the 

 branches of Nullipara polymorpha dredged iu shallow 

 water, Westport Bay, Co. Mayo (N.). 



4. Raphiodesma soedidum. Bow., hi, 230, 354, PI. 

 LXXVI, figs. 13—19. 



5. Raphiodesma pallaciosum, Bow., n. sp., iv, PL XVII, 

 figs. 7—12. 



" Sponge, coating irregularly. Surface rough and 

 ragged. Oscula simple, dispersed. Pores incon- 

 spicuous^ Dermis abundantly spiculous ; spicula 

 acuate, rather long and slender, fasciculated ; fasciculi 

 broad and flat, irregularly dispersed ; bases and apices 

 of the component spicula coincident. Retentive spicula 

 dentato-palmate, inequi-anchorate, congregated in 

 rosette-shaped groups, and bidentate inequi-anchorate, 



