Halichondeia. ZOOPHYTA. SPONGIADJ5. 
523 
Tubes smooth on the surface, their walls thick at the base, becoming thin 
as paper towards the orifice, and internally porous — Montagu refers this spe- 
cies to the Spongia tubulosa of Ellis’s Zooph. 188. t. Iviii. fl 7? which differs 
in the presence of lateral tubes and firm elastic reticulations on the surface. 
105. H. ramosa. — Soft, tough, erect branches, round or 
compressed, separate or confluent; with short double-pointed 
spicula. 
Spongia ramosa, Ray^ Syn. Stirp. 29. Ellis^ Coral. 80. t. xxxii. f./. F. 
Phil. Trans. 1765, t. x. f. B. C. t. xi. f. 1. — S. oculata, Pallas’s El. 390. 
— S. oc. and dichotoma, Linn. Syst. i. 1298. — S. oc. dich. and stuposa, 
Sol. Ellis’s Zooph. 184. Mont. Wern. Mem. ii. 76. t. hi. iv. vi 
Hanging from the under surface of rocks about the low-water mark 
of spring tides. 
The mode, of drying determines the degree of softness of this species ; the 
orifices are generally disposed on one side of the branches ; there arise from 
a single stem, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, dichotomously divided 
branches ; the arms long or short, round or compressed ; sometimes the 
branches assume a fan shape, the spaces become filled up, and the whole ap- 
pears palmate, with proliferous edges ; the height seldom reaches a foot. — 
Instead of adopting these different forms, which are often connected with 
the same stem, as distinct species, as has been generally done by modern 
authors, I have preferred following Bay, in viewing them as varieties. 
106. H. pahnata. — Hard, tough, erect branches, with nu- 
merous raised orifices on the one side ; spicula short, double 
pointed. 
Spongia pal. Sol. Ellis’s Zooph. 189. t. Iviii. f. 6. Mont. Wern. Mem. 
ii. 80. — In deep water on different parts of the coast from Devon to 
Zetland. 
The st^m rises from a spreading woody root, and is about an inch in thick- 
ness, it is irregularly branched, compressed, subpalmated, and upwards of a 
foot in height ; the fibres have a centro-peripheral and distal direction ; the 
pores are numerous, unequal, and angular ; the orifices are confined to one 
surface, with the margins but little elevated. — This species is coarser in the 
texture, branches less regular, and inhabits deeper water, than the preced- 
ing, to which it is nearly related. 
107. H. ventilabra.’~^'Widie[y funnel-shaped or foliaceous, 
with woody veins ; rough and brittle when dry ; spicula long, 
linear and pointed. 
Sea-Fan Sponge, Ellis^ Phil. Trans. 1765, 289. t. xi. f. H. — S. ventila- 
bra, Linn. Syst. i. 1 296. — S. ventilabra and Zetlandica, Jameson.^ 
Wern. Mem. i. 561 — S. vent, and sypha, Mont.\'Wexn. Mem. ii. 105. 
t. XV. f. i — In deep water on the Scottish coast ; in Zetland termed 
Ling-hoods. 
This sponge is extremely variable in form, forming an entire cup, becom- 
ing shallower with age, of upwards of a foot in diameter ; or with a cup divid- 
ed into irregular lobes at the margin, or split, and exhibiting a fan -shaped 
leaf ; the base, by which it adheres to stones, is solid, and the stem is very 
short; the substance is thick at the base, becoming thinner towards the 
margin ; when old, the central part thickens, becomes reticular, with a brit- 
tle exterior covering, which may be rubbed off, leaving a skeleton not unlike 
some GorgonicB ; the pores are of various sizes, those on the inside of the cup 
or leaf are larger and less angular than the external ones ; the spicula are 
numerous, and much matted ; the gelatinous matter abounds in the young 
