glass-sponge

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A species of silicious sponge, Hyalonema sieboldi, found in Japan. It consists of a cup-shaped spongy body supported by a number of twisted, glass-like, silicious fibers, which are sunk in the mud of the sea-bottom. The term is extended to several similar or related silicious sponges whose framework resembles spun glass, as Venus's flower-basket. See cut under Euplectella.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A siliceous sponge, of the genus Hyalonema, and allied genera; -- so called from their glassy fibers or spicules; -- called also vitreous sponge. See glass-rope, and euplectella.
2. n. See Glass-sponge, in the Vocabulary.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a siliceous sponge (with glassy spicules) of the class Hyalospongiae