REPORT ON THE HEXACTINELLIDA. 57 



In an article on Semperella (Hyalonema) schultzii (1869), Gray also expressed an 

 opinion on the relation of Etij)lectella cucumer, Owen, and Euplectella asjoergillum.^ He 

 said : — " The different shape of the body of Etiplectella aspergillum and of Euplectella 

 cucumer may indicate that they grow in different situations and circumstances. Euplec- 

 tella cucumer most probably grows in the mud, kept in its place by a mooring of stones, 

 as figured in Professor Owen's plate. The curved form of Euplectella aspergillum would 

 lead one to believe that it most probably grows on the side of a perpendicular rock, but 

 I have no proof that this is the case, except the form. If it grew from a horizontal 

 surface, the top of the tube or cloaca would not be uppermost, and the Euplectella would 

 not be in the upright position natural to all Sponges and other animals and plants that 

 live on the bottom of the sea." 



With regard to the habitat of Euplectella aspergillum, Owen, a communication pub- 

 lished in the same year, 1869, by Thomas J. Moore,^ is of interest. He communicates 

 the account given by a certain Captain Morgan, who observed at Zebu (which is at a 

 distance of three nautical miles from the village of Talisay), the capturing of " Regadera" 

 by the natives. On the two extremities of the transverse beam of a large T-shaped iron 

 apparatus, a long bamboo rod with numerous iron hooks is fixed horizontally on each 

 side. This apparatus is let down upon the muddy ground at a depth of 130 or 135 

 fathoms, and is dragged over the bottom by the boat, which is carried along by the ebbing 

 tide, until the fisherman observes that something has been caught. On pulling it up, 

 some Regaderas are usually found to have been caught by the hooks. These are at 

 first dirty and of a yellow colour, but after maceration in fresh water they acquire a 

 beautiful appearance. The root tuft of the Sponge remained in the soft muddy or sandy 

 bottom, while the entire upper tubular portion of the body projected freely, and its 

 truncated terminal surface " turned itself towards the setting sun." Another verbal 

 communication made by Captain Morgan to Moore is also noteworthy, since, according 

 to it, the natives only capture the Regadera when the boat is carried onwards in a given 

 direction, but never when it moves in the opposite course. 



In the change which Gray ^ proposed in 1872 upon his above-mentioned Sponge System 

 of 1867, he placed within the order Coralliospougiae, and in that section which possesses 

 " hexradiate spines in the sarcode," the family of the Euplectellidte, including the single 

 genus Euplectella, and he referred them to that subdivision in which " the sponge is free, 

 attached to the mud by numerous elongated filamentous spicules surrounding its base," 

 and has " small recurved spines at the end"; the "skeleton being formed of elongated 

 spicules more or less united by siliceous secretion." 



The family, and at the same time the somewhat altered generic characters, are now 

 stated as follows : — " Sponge tubular, free, formed of bundles of elongated thread-like 



1 Ann. and Mag. Kat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. ii. p. 377. ^ ^i„„. and May. Xat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. iii. p. 196. 



^ A7in. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. ix. pp. 442-4G1. 

 (ZOOL. CHALL, EXP. PART LIU. 1886.) Ggg 8 



