22 REMARKS ÓN SOME CURIOUS SPONGES. 
of the sponge are upwards of twenty in number and over 
two inches in length. They resemble in appearance tufts of 
blonde human hair. The individual threads are nearly like 
those proceeding from the lower end of Euplectella. Where 
thickest they are less than the zy of an inch in diameter, 
Fig. 2. and become attenuated towards the extremities. 
At first, as they proceed from.the body of the 
V sponge, they are smooth and then finely tuber- 
culate. The tubercles are gradually replaced by 
minute recurved hooks, which become better 
developed approaching the free end of the 
threads which finally terminate in a pair of 
longer opposed hooks, reminding one of the arms 
of an anchor, as seen in Fig. 12. The object of 
the tufts of threads, with their lateral hooklets 
and terminal anchors, would appear to be to 
maintain or moor the sponge in position in its 
' ocean home. i 
The singular sponge thus described, the author 
has attributed to a genus distinct from Hyalo- 
nema and Euplectella, and has dedicated the 
species in honor of his wife, under the name of 
y 
w, 
Fd 
Pheronema Anne. 
N í Of the specimens of Hyalonema in the Mu- 
seum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, there is one which appears to the 
writer as somewhat significant. The fascicle would appear 
to have been withdrawn from its sponge body and lain 
sometime in the sea before it was found. This is inferred 
from the fact that the Polythoa crust reaches to within an 
inch and a half of the end, which in the natural condition is 
inserted in the sponge mass. Two sharks eggs are also at- 
tached to the fascicle by their tendrilled extremities, and 
one of the tendrils clasping the fascicle is included in the 
polyp crust. 
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