ACCOUNT OF BRITISH SPONGES. 



107 



form 'ventilabrum, consists of three large lobes, 

 and these more or less divided into irregular smaller 

 ones at the margin, spreading equally from the 

 stalk the greatest breadth being eight inches 

 and a half, the smallest above seven ; the height 

 including the stalk, five inches ; the depth of the 

 cavity, three inches. 



Another specimen is fan-shaped, but irregular- 

 ly lobed, having a detached lobe, or a young 

 sponge of about four inches in length, issuing from 

 the top of the stem ; and another appears to have 

 been broken off from the opposite side. The 

 height of this specimen is ten inches. Both these 

 sponges are of the same texture, formed by lig- 

 neous branches or ramifications anastomosing in a 

 reticulated manner, and covered with the same 

 kind of spongy fibres. They are equally thin, 

 not exceeding a quarter of an inch in the thickest 

 part, and much less near the margin ; the whole 

 becoming pervious to light, so that objects may 

 be distinctly seen through the pores of the sponge, 

 when held pretty close to the eye. 



S8. Scypha. Rigid, but not woody, originating 

 from a corky base, and spreading into a 

 cup, slightly cut and indented at the mar° 

 gin : pores fine. 

 Spongia foUascens. Pall. Zooph. p. 395? 

 Plate XV. fig. 1. 



The shape of this sponge, is that of an inverted 



