PLATE LXXXVI. 297 



I received this interesting and beautiful little species 

 from my friend Mr. Henry Lee. It was dredged up 

 off Ilfracombe. It is seated on a small mass of stone, 

 wbich is partly enveloped by the basal membranous 

 portion of the sponge that closely adheres to it ; the 

 remainder of the stone being covered by extraneous 

 matters. On closely examining the specimen I found 

 there was a fracture near the base of the conical peni- 

 cillate organ of nearly the whole of its circumference, 

 which enabled the upper portion to be bent down so as 

 to exhibit a section of the interior of the organ by 

 direct light, as represented by figure 2, with a portion 

 of the slender central axis projected towards the eye, 

 and the radiating fasciculi with their expanded termi- 

 nations on the inner surface of the dermis, thus 

 exhibiting a close approximation to the corresponding 

 structural peculiarities of the type of the genus C'io- 

 cahj'pta fenicillus, but on a much smaller and more 

 delicate scale. The oscula are in greater numbers 

 towards the distal termination of the penicillate organ, 

 a few only being apparent on its proximal portion. 

 The pores are abundantly distributed over the whole 

 of its surface in groups, within the areas of the dermal 

 network, and nearly the whole of them were in an open 

 condition, as represented by fig. 3, which exhibits a 

 small portion of the surface of the column by direct 

 light, A fragment from the surface near the base of 

 that organ, mounted in Canada balsam, was so very 

 pellucid, as to scarcely allow of the pores within the 

 areas of the dermal rete being visible with a power of 

 80 linear. 



The thin basal membrane of the sponge, partially 

 spread over the small mass on which it is seated, did 

 not present the same reticulated structure that charac- 

 terises the penicillate organ. The spicula were abun- 

 dantly but irregularly dispersed on its surface, and I 

 did not detect, on the small portion examined, either 

 oscula or pores. There is but one form of spicula 

 which is common to all parts of the sponge, but they 



