BRITISH SPONGIADiE. 117 



dponges,' or, indeed, from any of the specimens described 

 by that author, " and appears to be Montagu's Spongia 

 stuposa, var. damicornis. There is good reason to believe 

 that the specimens figured by Montagu in * Wemerian 

 Memoirs,' vol. ii, pi. iii, are only stunted varieties of his 

 Spongia hispida, as very similar specimens of that sponge 

 have been found at Hastings, and are in my possession ; 

 and there is also one in Montagu's collection of sponges in 

 the possession of Dr. Grant, labelled Spongia hispida, which 

 is quite as stunted as the upper of the two figures in 

 pi. iii, vol. ii, of the ' Wern. Mem.,' while that which 

 Montagu figures in pi. iv, and described as a variety, to 

 "be called damicornis," is the better representative of 

 Spongia stuposa. I have therefore thought it advisable so to 

 designate this distinct and well-marked species Bictyo- 

 cglindrus stuposus, and especially as the only other British 

 species, D. ramosus, to which the name stuposus could with 

 any propriety be applied, is undoubtedly Spongia ramosa 

 of Gerard and other authors. 



Among the sponges in the collection of Colonel Montagu 

 in the possession of Professor Grant, of University College, 

 there is the smaller of the type specimens figured in pi. xi, 

 fig. 2, vol. ii, 'Wemerian Memoirs,' but the larger one, 

 represented by fig. 1, is not there. On carefully examining 

 the one represented by fig. 2 I found it to be a stunted 

 specimen of the same authoi-'s S, stuposa, var. damicornis, 

 represented in pi. iv of the same work, but the surface 

 spicula which present so striking a feature in the latter 

 specimen are nearly all absent in the former, which has 

 evidently been much acted on by the sea before it was 

 found. There is no difference in any of the structural 

 characters between the two specimens, excepting that the 

 minute sphero-stellate spicula of the membranes of /S'. rigida, 

 Montagu, slightly exceed in size those of S. stuposa in my 

 possession, a difference which is by no means uncommon in 

 two specimens of undoubtedly the same species, and which 

 frequently occurs in Tethea lyncurium. I am strongly 

 incHtied to believe that the larger of the two type specimens 

 of 8p. rigida figured and described by Montagu is the one 



