366 A MONOGRAPH OF THE 



3. Chaltna Montaguii, Bowerhanh. 



Hauchondbia MoNTAGun, Johnston. 



— coLTTMB^, Johnston. 



Spongia columb^. Walker's Essays, p. 196. 



— CANCELLATA, Sowerby, Brit. Misoel., 131, pi. Ix ; Montagu, in 

 Wern. Mem., ii, 110 ; Turton, Brit. Eaun., 208. 

 ScYPHA CANCELLATA. Graj's Brit. Plants, pi. i, 358. 

 HALiOHONDaiA coLTTMB^. Fleming's British Animals, 521. 



Sponge. Sessile, irregularly latticed by cylindrical inoscu- 

 lating tubular branches. Surface smooth. Oscula 

 simple, slightly elevated, dispersed, or terminal. Pores 

 inconspicuous. Dermis reticulated, rete uniserial; 

 dermal membrane aspiculous, pellucid, and thin. 

 Skeleton. Primary lines more or less multispiculous ; 

 secondary lines rarely more than unispiculous ; fibre 

 variable in diameter ; spicula acerate, short and stout. 

 Interstitial membranes spiculous ; tension spicula 

 acerate, slender. 



Colour. — Light brown, occasionally pink. 



Habitat. — Devonshire coast, Montagu ; Connemara, 

 McCoUa ; Brighton, Mr. Thomas Ingall ; Hastings, J. S. 

 Bowerbank. 



Ewamined. — 'In the dried state. 



Dr. Johnston's description and figure of Halichondria 

 Montaguii difiiers considerably from those which have fallen 

 under my own observation ; so much so as to create some 

 doubt whether the sponge he described is identical with the 

 one to which I have allocated that name ; and yet there is 

 so much agreement in the tubular and other parts of the 

 sponge I am describing in its general structure, and no 

 other species known to me which appears to compete with 

 it in right to the name of Montaguii, that I am led to 

 believe that the species in hand is truly the one to which 

 Dr. Fleming applied the name of Montagu. The spicula 

 figl^red by Dr. Johnston as those of the sponge he describes 

 are certainly very much larger in proportion than those of 



