266 PLATE LXXXII. 



stout ; also inequi-dentato-palmate anchorate, and 

 bidentate ineqiii-anchorate, lootli forms very minute and 

 few in number, dispersed. Skeleton. Irregular and 

 very open ; fibre stout ; spicula sub-clavate, fusiformi- 

 acuate ; stout and very fusiform ; areas large and pro- 

 fusely spiculous ; tension spicula subclavate fusiformi- 

 acuate, long and slender, exceedingly numerous and 

 closely matted together ; also tricurvate acerate, small 

 and slender, few in number ; retentive spicula tlie same 

 as in tlie dermal membrane, but more copiously dis- 

 tributed. Gemmules membranous, aspiculous. 



Colour. — In the dried state, cream white. 



EaUtaf.— Jersey, Rev. A. M. Norman, 1869; Mr. 

 Nichols, Jersey, 1851. 



Examined. — In the dried state. 



The type-specimen of this species is an irregular 

 mass rather less than two inches in average diameter. 

 It has apparently been based on the solid rock, as small 

 branches of GoraUina ojjicinalis are intermingled with 

 its structure ; the greatest thickness does not exceed 

 half an inch. The surface is exceedingly irregular and 

 rugged, and where the dermis is in good preservation it 

 closely resembles thin cream-coloured kid leather. This 

 crustaceous appearance arises from the exceeding 

 abundance of its various spicula combined with the 

 stout polyspiculous network of the dermal mem- 

 brane in the interstices of which numerous large open 

 pores were apparent. It is rather remarkable that 

 scarcely a single specimen of the long slender sub- 

 clavate, fusiformi-acuate tension spicula, which are 

 found in such profusion in the interstitial membranes, 

 could be detected in the portions of the dermal mem- 

 brane that were submitted to examination ; while the 

 tricurvate, acerate tension spicula were very much more 

 abundant in the dermal membrane than in the inter- 

 stitial ones. The minute retentive spicula were about 

 equally distributed in the two descriptions of membrane. 

 The interstitial spaces in the sponge are very large, and 

 their membranes proportionallj^ expanded ; the whole of 



