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NOTES on a COLLECTION of SPONGES from the 

 WEST COAST of POBTUGAL. 



By E. Hanitsch, Ph.D. 

 With Plates XII. and XIII. 



[Read May 17th, 1895. j 



The following pages contain a description of a small, but 

 interesting collection of Portuguese Sponges, which were 

 sent to me by Professor Paulino de Oliveira, Coimbra. 

 They are all marine, with the exception of one, Euspon- 

 gilla lacustris, Autt., the only species of Eresh-water 

 Sponges thus far obtained from the Iberian Peninsula. 



I have not, in all cases, succeeded in specific indentifi- 

 cation, and with some of the forms I have not even 

 attempted it. Many of the specimens which I received 

 were mere fragments cut from larger specimens, and this 

 often made identification more difficult, especially with 

 the Horny Sponges. In the case of the genera Halichon- 

 dria, Beniera and Ghalina, I did not seriously attempt 

 specific identification, as I consider a vast number of 

 species of those genera to be quite insufficiently defined, 

 and before somebody takes the trouble to work out those 

 genera, I do not think it of much use to attempt specific 

 identification. 



The collection comprises twenty-eight forms. Two of 

 them represent new genera and species, and are very 

 interesting, viz., Amphiute paulina, so far the first 

 instance of a calcareous sponge containing large, longitu- 

 dinally arranged, oxeote spicules both in the dermal and 

 gastral cortex, and Physcaphora decorticans, a tetracti- 

 nellid sponge, with a new type of microscleres. There 



