742 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



more or less irregular, slender, blunt papillte, each of which, bears a tuft 

 •of numerous slender, acute, more or less bent spicules, arising from its 

 lateral and terminal surfaces. At the tips of the branches the papillae 

 are more slender and divergent, and the texture is more open and loose. 

 During life these papilke are connected together by a thin dermal mem- 

 brane, through which the spicules project but little. The oscules are 

 small and scattered over the surface. Color, when living, dark red to 

 orange-red; when dried, generally dark grayish brown or umber- colored, 

 fading to dull yellowish brown and gray. Diameter of branches mostly 



Omm 4-q rtmm 



South Carolina to Cape Cod. Very abundant in Long Island Sound 

 and Vineyard Sound, low-water to 10 fathoms, on oysters and other 

 shells, stones, etc. ; Great Egg Harbor, ~Nqw Jersey ; Fort Macon, S^rth 

 Carolina (coll. Dr. Yarrow). 



Isodictya, species undetermined. 



Watch Hill, Ehode Island ; Vineyard Sound and Nantucket, washed 

 ashore after storms in winter; Casco Bay ; Bay of Fundy. 



The specimens from Watch Hill have few broad, thick, palmate 

 branches, with large oscules and an open texture, with multispiculose 

 fibers. They resemble Isodictya palmetto, Bowerbank. 



"Chalina oculata Bowerbank. (p. 497.) ■ - 



British Spongiada?, vol. i, p. 208, Plate 13, fig. 262 ; vol. ii, p. 361. Spongia oculata 

 Linne, Syst. Nat., ed. x, sp. 2; ed. xii, p. 1299 ; Pallas, Elench. Zooph., p. 390, 

 1766. HalichoHdria oculata Johnston, op. cit., p. 94, Plate 3. 

 Ehode Island to Labrador ; northern coast of Europe to Great Brit- 

 ain. Off Watch Hill, Ehode Island, 4 to 5 fathoms ; off Gay Head, 4 to 

 15 fathoms; very common in Massachusetts Bay, Casco Bay, and Bay 

 of Fundy ; low-water to SO fathoms. 



Chalina akbuscula Verrill, sp. nov. (p. 409.) 



Sponge profusely branched, from close to the thick base; branches 

 repeatedly dichotomous, slender, round or somewhat compressed, seldom 

 broad or palmate. Oscules small, round, irregularly scattered. Texture 

 of the surface finely reticulated when dry, with very delicate fibers, 

 which usually have but a single row of very slender fusiform spicules, 

 covered by a thin layer of horny matter ; the reticulations do not usu- 

 ally exceed the length of a single spicule. Primary longitudinal fibers 

 of the larger branches strong, horny, with several lines of spicules; 

 secondary fibers at right angles to the primary ones, much smaller, 

 with fewer spicules. The spicules are slender, fusiform (" acerate"), 

 much smaller and more slender than in the preceding species. Color, 

 when living, dull gray ; when dried, brownish, yerlowish, or white. The 

 largest specimens are about one foot high ; more commonly 6 to 8 inches 

 (150 mm to 200 lum ) ; breadth often nearly as much ; diameter of branches, 



