184 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



On the sponge body Bocage made no observations ; be simply notes that the 

 covering of polypes extends without interruption to the pointed extremity of the fibrous 

 cord, where they become somewhat diminished in size. At a later period he ^ supplied 

 some further data as to the locality of his Hyalonema lusitanicum — near the mouth of 

 the Tagus — and also confirmed his previous report from the examination of some new 

 material. 



The account given by Barboza du Bocage seemed to Gray to be well calculated to 

 support the opinion which he still firmly maintained, that the long fibrous bundle 

 was the skeletal axis of the polype covering. He utilised it in a renewed defence of his 

 views,^ admitting, however, that he had been so far mistaken in his examination of the 

 individual polypes, since these possessed not eight feathered, but twenty simple tentacles. 

 Soon after this Bowerbank elaborated ' his theory in regard to the nature of 

 Hyalonema. He now maintained that not only the long tuft of glass-spicules and 

 the cylindrical or conical basal mass, but also the uneven irregular rind surrounding 

 the fibrous tuft, were all parts of the sponge. 



A memoir by Max Schultze * is noteworthy as containing the proposal to unite the 

 two genera Euplectella, Owen, and Hyalonema, Gray, into a special group of siliceous 

 sponges with the title " Lophospongise." 



An accurate description of the sponge named by him Hyalonema mirabile was now 

 given by Bowerbank.' The cylindrical elevations on the rind of the siliceous tuft, which 

 had been described by most observers as polypes, were recognised as the oscula of 

 the sponge. The form described by Barboza du Bocage Bowerbank * looked upon as not 

 specifically distinct from his Hyalonema mirabile. 



In his comprehensive sponge system published in 1867,' Gray designated the large 

 cylindrical body, which he regarded as the whole sponge, in which the long siliceous 

 filaments were embedded, by a new generic name " Carteria," assigned to this genus a 

 place in his family of the " Esperiadse," in the order of the Acanthospongia, and gave to 

 it the following diagnosis : — •" Sponge massive, irregularly reticulated, shallow, formed of 

 abundant agglutinated filiform needle-like spicules, with four- and six-rayed stellate, 

 cruciform and birotulate spicules." As the only known genus he mentioned Carteria 

 japonica { = Hyalonema mirabile, Bowerbank, Spongia octancyra, Brandt, and Spongia 

 spinicrux, Brandt). 



In two communications published in 1867,- Ehrenberg maintained his opinion 

 that the entire body was artificially compounded by the Japanese, but communicated 

 in the second paper a letter from Barboza du Bocage, in which the latter declared 



' Proc. Zool. Soc. Land., p. 662, 1865. 2 ji^n. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. xviii. p. 287, 1866. 



3 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. xviii. p. 397. 



* Archivf. raikrosk Anat., 1867, p. 206; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. xix. p. 153. 



5 Proc. Zool. Soc. Land., p. 18, 1867. " Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud., p. 902, 1867. 



' Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend., p. 492. ^ Monatsber. d. k. jimiss. Akad. d. PFiss. Berlin, pp. 298, 843. 



