PLATE LXXVI. 233 



slow shrinking is a vital action not uncommon among 

 sponges under similar conditions. 



The specimens sent to me by Mr. Hillier are each 

 four lines in length by about one and a half line in 

 breadth, and were not of greater substance than thin 

 writing paper ; both were mounted on thin glass slips ; 

 while in their natural state they presented the same 

 rugged and uneven surface that characterises the type- 

 specimen. I covered them with Canada balsam and 

 thin glass, and several beautiful rosette-shaped groups 

 of the palmato-anchorate spicula were at once rendered 

 visible. Mr. Hillier had previously advised me of their 

 occurrence in the sponge. I did not succeed on finding 

 these spicula thus arranged in the type-specimen, so 

 that the discovery of the groups by Mr. Hillier brings 

 this interesting specific character into a closer relation 

 to the type sponge of the genus, R. lingua. Although 

 varying in size and substance from the type-specimen 

 of the species to so great an extent, they were in 

 perfect accordance in every one of their anatomical 

 details. 



The specimens of this species described above were 

 sent to me on the 22nd November, 1871, by Mr. Hillier, 

 and on the 19th of December following, I received a 

 living specimen of the sponge from him in a bottle of 

 sea water. In the note accompanying the specimen he 

 writes, " We have had an exceedingly low tide, so that 

 some old piles at the mouth of our Harbour were 

 exposed, and my man who collects for me in winter was 

 able to get some of the sponge, of which I have sent you 

 a piece." This specimen is an irregular patch of about 

 two inches in diameter. It is exceedingly rugged on 

 its external surface, as it has spread itself over all the 

 irregular growths that previously existed on the old 

 wooden pile. Its average thickness does not exceed 

 that of the type-specimen from Jersey, but it differs 

 from that sponge in being in the living condition 

 of a dark red or orange colour, and a great portion 

 of its living colour rem^vined after immersion in 



