520 ZOOPHYTA. SPONGIADiE. Halichondkia. 
Hemispherical ; one or two inches in diameter ; attached by a flat, soft 
base ; pale green, with a tinge of yellow ; when fresh, it exhales an offensive 
ammoniacal odour ; the surface is nearly smooth, but by drying it becomes 
villous, and when worn a little, muricate by the extremities of the bundles 
of fibres ; the fibres decrease in size from the circumference ; the spicula are 
long, of unequal lengths, fusiform, and where they reach the centre they are 
extremely fine, forming a dense, villous nucleus ; the animal matter separa- 
ting the fibres is small in quantity ; from the arrangement of the fibres a 
horizontal section may be easily made, while a vertical one cannot be effect- 
ed without difficulty. 
92. T. splicBrica . — Surface thickly covered with tubercles 
destitute of hairs. 
Donati^ Mer Adriat, 62, t. x. f. 1 — Alcyonium Lyncurium, Linn. Syst. 
h 1295 — Spongia verrucosa, Mont. Wem. Mem. ii. 117, t. xiii. f. 4, 
6.— Coast of Devon. 
Diameter about an inch and a quarter ; “ globose, of a yellowish colour, 
extremely verrucose, and fleshy, which becomes very hard by drying, and is 
of considerable gravity even in that state ; the warts on the surface are ap- 
proximating, irregular in shape, and destitute of any pore; the hiternal part 
or nucleus is composed of fasciculate fibres, connected by the an ^nal gluten ; 
these fill the whole internal cavity, and radiate to the centre, appearing like 
threads of asbestus.” — Mont. 
\ 
Gen. XLIII. HALICHONDRIA (x«a<? silex.^ and^ov^go? car- 
tilago). — Porous, the cartilaginous skeleton s 
by siliceous spicula ; form various. 
Inhabiting the Sea. 
93. H. papillaris. — Encrusting; orifices large, subfubular, 
with entire smooth margins ; pores villous ; the spicula fusi- 
form, slightly curved. 
Spongia informis durior, compressa, Ray., Syn. Stirp. 30 Crumb of 
Bread Sponge, Ellis (Coral. 80, t. xvi. f. d.), Phil. Trans. 1765, t. x. 
f. A. — Cock’s-comb Sponge, ib. t. xi. f. G. — Spongia panacea and pa- 
pillaris, Pallas, El. -Zooph. 388, 391.— S. cristata and urens, Sol. Ellis. 
Zooph. 186, 187. — S. compacta, Soiver. Misc. i. 45, t. xliii — S. 
tomentosa and cristata, Mont. Wern. Mem. ii. 99. and 103 — S. papill. 
Grant, Edin. New Phil. Journ. ii. t. ii. f. 21 — Encrusting rocks and the 
stalks of the larger fuci, very common. 
Crust about a quarter of an inch thick, yellow, uniform, with regular tu- 
bular orifices where growing in a sheltered situation, but uneven where ex- 
posed, the orifices short or elevated on crest-like ridges ; the canals are nu- 
merous and wide ; when dry, the sponge is friable, not unlike the crumb of 
bread ; when heated to destroy the animal matter, the remaining spicula, if 
rubbed on the skin, excite a painful itching. The ova make their appear- 
ance in spring. 
94. H. panicea . — Substance spreading, dense, surface even, 
the orifices large, rather imbedded ; spicula short, cylindrical, 
obtusely pointed at one extremity, rounded at the other. 
Spongia panicea, Grant, Edin. New Phil. Journ. h 347 ; ii* t. ii. f. 4.— 
On rocks. 
trmgthened 
