538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rine products. . . . Such arrangements are entirely artificial, not- 

 withstanding that they are often so artistically done as to have 

 a most deceptively natural appearance." l The prettiest specimen 

 of Hyalonema the writer ever saw, one worthy to be called unique, 

 was a clever put-up job. Even to a part of the polyp encasement, 

 from one end to the other, it was put together much as we have seen 

 some fraudulent bird-stuffers put into the tail, wings, and even the 

 crown of the head, feathers from other birds. 



Hyalonema was the first of the glass-sponges known to science. 

 It came among the savants as an anomaly of animal structure. Soon 

 after appeared the Venus's Flower-Basket, the peerless beauty among 

 the glass-sponges. In two remarkable respects it resembled its pred- 

 ecessor. Like Hyalonema, it was moored to the sea-bottom by 

 glassy threads ; and, like the pretty Glass-Rope Sponge, it made its 

 debut in scientific society standing on its head ! It was actually so 

 figured by Dr. Owen, its original describer, in the " Zoological Trans- 

 actions of London." The name by which it is now known is well de- 

 served by an object so lovely Euplectella speciosa. The first of 

 these words means well-woven, while the second intensifies the first, so 

 that the meaning really is, the specially beautiful, well-woven (Fig. 3.) 



It is almost hopeless to attempt a description of Euplectella in 

 words. Nor has any artist yet done justice with his pencil to the deli- 

 cate fabric. The first specimen that reached England, and which for 

 a long time was the only one known, was purchased by William J. 

 Broderip, for the sum of $150 in gold. Says Prof. Owen : "Mr. Cum- 

 ing has intrusted to me for description one of the most singular and 

 beautiful, as well as the rarest of the marine productions." Euplec- 

 tella is in form a cornucopia, at the lower end about an inch in diam- 

 eter, and in good specimens, after making a graceful curve, terminat- 

 ing at top in a width of nearly two inches. This part has a cover 

 with a frilled edge, which, in a complete specimen, projects about a 

 fourth of an inch over the sides. The bottom, or smaller end, is en- 

 compassed with a dense ruff of glass threads, so delicately white, 

 flexible, and fine, that they look like a tuft of floss-silk. This muff-like 

 surrounding is sunk into the deep-sea ooze, the fibres pointing up, 

 which, though effectual, is certainly an odd way of mooring itself. In 

 this manner this sponge is, when living, in a perpetual bath of mud. 

 Like Hyalonema, our Euplectella is an anchoring sponge. Venus's 

 Flower-Basket looks like a structure made of spun-glass ; and so fra- 

 gile that one hesitates to take it into the hands. It is wonderfully 

 light reminding, in this respect, of the skeleton or phantom flowers 

 sometimes seen under glass. But Euplectella, although really so deli- 

 cate, is quite strong. The threads which make up this fabric of woven 



1 "The Hyalonema Mirabilis." Read, October 30, 1872, before the Asiatic Society of 

 Japan, by Henry Hadlow, Surgeon R. N. Printed in the Japan Weekly Mail, March 1, 

 1873. 



