320 PLATE JjJCXXIX. 



skeleton, also tricurvate, acerate, long and very slender, 

 few in number ; retentive spicula simple and contort 

 bihamate, large and numerous ; also dentato-inequi- 

 palmato-ancliorate, and bidentate inerfui-aneliorate, 

 minute, and few in number. Skeleton. — Fibre 

 rather stout and compact ; spicula subclavate, acuate. 

 Interstitial membt-anes spiculous ; tension spicula 

 acuate, ratlier numerous, dispersed ; retentive spicida 

 same as those of the dermal membrane. 



Colour. — In spirit, light ochreous yellow. 



Hahitaf. — Jersey ; Rev. A. M. Norman. 



E.vamincd. — Fi-om spirit. 



Among the sponges dredged off Jersey by the Rev. 

 A. M. Norman, I found three pieces of this species. 

 One two and a quarter inches in length on the stem of 

 a fucus three and a half inches long ; another rather 

 exceeding two inches in length, and the third, one 

 inch in length. These three, from the exact 

 similarity of the stems of the fucus, the eighth of 

 an inch in diameter, and the general similarity of 

 the sponge coating them, have every appearance of 

 having been originally parts of the same specimen. 

 The sponge completely envelops the stems, but it does 

 not in any part appear to exceed about one tenth of an 

 inch in thickness. The surface of the sponge is 

 smooth but very uneven, and the papul;i3 are rather 

 numerous, conical in form, and terminating acutely. I 

 could not by the aid of a two-inch lens detect any 

 oscula. In some ])arts of the dermal membrane there 

 were spaces in which the tension spicula were rather 

 thinly dispersed, and in these the bihamate spicula 

 were seen ;';/ sit//, but in other parts of the membrane 

 the tension spicula were thickly felted together in such 

 numbers as to entirely obscure the retentive ones 

 l^eneath them. The basal membrane of the sponge 

 jiresented a singular fallacious ajipearauce ; although 

 the sponge now loosely surrounds the stem of the 

 iiiciis, it is evident that in the living condition of the 

 j)l;i)it and sponge tlie Intter very closely embraced the 



