158 PLATE LXII. 



tion regarding its external form and its anatomical 

 structure to the description I have given of it in the 

 first instance. 



The form in the five nearly perfect specimens with 

 which I am acquainted is, as stated by Mr. Norman, 

 very like that of a Swede turnip, and as far as our 

 knowledge of the species extends it appears to be a 

 constant character. 



Mr. Norman, in his description of his proposed new 

 genus Oceanapia, p. 334, ' British Association Reports' 

 for 1868, describes the sponge as follows : — 



" The sponge consisting of a hollow sphere filled 

 with sarcode, surrounded by a hard spongeous crust of 

 a very close and compact nature ;" and subsequently in 

 p. 335, the author writes, " My largest specunen con- 

 tained nearly a pint of sarcode in the interior. This 

 sarcode is of a deeper colour than is iisual among the 

 sponges, and when the dried Oceanapia is cut open the 

 sarcode will be found lying on that side which had 

 been downwards when drying, shrunk into a deep 

 brown or almost black mass, having somewhat the 

 apjDcarance and consistency of cobbler's wax." 



The simplest form of this species is that repre- 

 sented by fig. 2. I received this specimen from my 

 friend Mr. Peach among the numerous fragments of 

 probably several specimens of the sponge from Shet- 

 land in 1864. I have described it in p. 348, vol. ii, 

 ' Mon. Brit. Spongiadas,' as an abnormal form of one 

 of the cloacal fistulas, but the acquisition of four 

 nearly perfect specimens of the sponge by my friend 

 the Rev. Mr. Norman has so enlightened us regarding 

 the natural form of the species that I feel convinced 

 that fig. 2 really represents a small but nearly perfect 

 specimen of the species. The fact that it has but one 

 large terminal cloacal appendage does not militate 

 against this idea, as in two other specimens obtained 

 by Mr. Norman, the bulbs of which were two and a 

 half inches in diameter, each had a large, central, 

 apical, cloacal appendage, about nine lines in diameter, 



