Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1838 Vol.2.djvu/307

 Sp. complicata, Montagu in Wern. Menr. ii. 97, tab. 9, fig, 2, 3.

Hab. At the roots of the smaller sea-weeds.

This small species grows in a thickly clustered manner, so that it is often difficult to ascertain the exact height and limits of a single specimen. I have a specimen which appears to be nearly an inch in height; the branches are slender, about a line in diameter, and often inosculate.

3. G. ciliata, small, white, simple, sub-cylindrical, tubular, slightly contracted towards the terminal aperture which is encircled with a row of erect radiating spicula.

G. ciliata, Flem. Brit. Anim. 525.

Spongia coronata, Soland. Zooph. 190, tab. 58, fig. 8, 9; Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 88; Lam. Hist. Nat. ii. 370.

Hab. On the roots of the smaller sea-weeds.

I have once only met with this species on our coast; the specimen was half an inch in height. "The surface is closely covered with linear pointed spicula, having a terminal direction; in the substance of the sponge, besides those linear, there are other tri-radiated spicula. The internal surface is full of irregularly shaped pores." — Fleming.

1. M. polymorpha, encrusting, irregular, surface very uneven and studded over with mammiliary tubercles perforated on the top; or even and smooth.

M. polymorpha, Linn.; Soland. Zooph. 130; Turt. Brit. Faun. 205; Stew. Elem. ii. 428; Hogg's Stockton, 37; Flem. Br. Anim. 528. Hab. On rocks, very common.

Crust of a dull purplish colour, adherent throughout, inclined to spread circularly, at first very thin, even, and smooth, but afterwards often studded over with close-set mammillary tubercles perforated on the top. When old, or when placed in favourable situations, it attains a quarter of an inch in thickness, and becomes very uneven and knobbed.

I have quoted the above synonymes without any mark of doubt because the authors agree that the species intended by them is common on all the British coast, and that described by us is the only one which is so. At the same time I must remark that the figure of which they refer to (Corall. t. xxvii. f. c) is very unlike any thing I have seen on this coast, and is surely a different species. Were it not that Dr. seems to consider the Millepora lichenoides of  and  as comparatively rare, and confined to the "English coast," I would have referred our Millepore to that species. The figure (Soland. Zooph. tab. 23, f. 10, 11, 12) is not uncharacteristic, and the description is at least as applicable as that of M. polymorpha.

1. C. officinalis, much branched, bushy, fastigiate; branches dichotomous or trichotomous, VOL. II. 3 I