37 
PORIFERA [SPONGES]. 
Sponges are sometimes cultivated from cuttings, care being taken High Cases 
that a portion of the skin is retained in each piece. It takes about 1 
seven years for a cubic inch of sponge to grow to a marketable size. 
Attention is directed to the gigantic Luff aria archeri , Neptune’s 
Trumpet (Case II.), from Yucatan, and to the fine fan-shaped 
specimen of Ianthella flabelliformis beneath it (Case II.) ; the skeleton 
fibres in these sponges are comparatively thick and cored with a 
thick pith, those of the bath sponges being solid, or with only a 
slender core of pith. The specimen of Phyllospongia foliascens 
(Case II. 4) shows a curious likeness to a Turbinarian coral, the 
oscules of the sponge resembling the calicles of the coral ; but it 
is uncertain whether these resemblances have any real significance. 
Myxospongida or Slime Sponges comprise a small group 
characterised by the entire absence of a skeleton. Halisarca forms 
yellowish-brown slimy crusts on stones. 
[A series of specimens and diagrams illustrating the structure of 
Sponges is exhibited in an upright table case at the eastern end of 
the Coral Gallery.] 
