THE JOURNAL OF THE Quekett Microscopical Club. ON A NEW BRITISH SPONGE OF THE GENUS Microciona. (Read November 23rd, 1877.) PLATES I. II. The Sponge, which I have the pleasure of bringing before you, was found in a deep cleft on the under side of a boulder of the New Red Sandstone, off Paignton, in Torbay, at about the ordinary low tide mark. The locality is well known to our naturalists, both past and present. The Rev. Charles Kingsley, in his "Glaucus," has eloquently descanted on the abundant riches of the place, which afforded him much enjoyment in the study of natural history. Following the retiring tide, especially if it be at the equinox, you have ample leisure for an examination of those fringes of the rocks where a certain class of sponges are found in considerable quantity. These are for the most part "coating sponges," or those which like to fix themselves in narrow fissures; and that which I bring before you as yet undescribed and new to our fauna, belongs to the first class, and to the genus established by Dr. Bowerbank, under the name of Microciona. The characters which distinguish the genus are thus set forth in the second volume of the "Spongiada," p. 7, as having " a common basal membrane, whence spring, at or about right angles to its plane, numerous separate columns of spicula, intermixed with keratode, furnished externally with spicula, which radiate from the columns, at various angles, towards the dermal surface of the sponge." Dr. Bowerbank has tabulated twelve varieties, all of B |