90 



ACCOUNT OF BRITSIH SPONGES. 



16. Papillaris. Sessile, flat, spreading, with scat- 

 tered tubulous tubercles. 



Spongia papillaris. Gmel p. 3824 — Pallas, Zooph, 

 p. 391.— S. compacta, Br. Miscel. 1. t. 42 ? 



This sponge is usually attached to rocks, some- 

 times intermixed with Corallina officinalis and 

 others, spreading three or four inches. In a re- 

 cent state, it is soft and yellow, the tubercles oc- 

 casionally tipped with blue : when dry it becomes 

 less soft, and turns to a brown or grey colour. 

 When examined by a lens, the surface appears 

 like gauze : the papillae are various in size, hoU 

 low or tubular, and disposed without order. 



Common on the south coast of Devon on 

 the rocks that are rarely left by the receding 

 tide. 



It will be perceived, that part of the synonyma 

 prefixed, is given with doubt ; but we suspect 

 from the appearance of the compacta figured by 

 Mr Sowerby, that it is really a fine variety of this 

 species ; the surface appears to be the same, and 

 the difference consists in the tubercles being more 

 lengthened, more numerous, and more connected. 

 This fine variety, (as I suspect,) was probably 

 thrown up from the deep, where all marine sub- 

 jects of this nature, arrive at much greater per- 

 fection than nearer the shore, where the continual 

 agitation of the water causes depauperation. 



