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to it. Dr. Bowerbank agreed with Max Schultz in supposing 
the long “‘ glass-rope”’ to be an intimate portion of the basal 
sponge, but believed that the so-called ‘ polyp-heads,” 
instead of being attached parasitically, were, in reality, the 
oscules of the sponge itself. The opinion of Dr. J. E. Gray 
had been that the ‘“ glass-rope” was a coral formed by the 
enveloping polyps, and that the sponge had nothing to do 
with its construction, but merely grew parasitically upon the 
supposed coral. From time to time the question had 
cropped up, and had given rise to animated discussion, not 
to say hot controversy, which of these three theories was the 
correct one, until Professor Loven turned the whole thing 
and former ideas of it also, ‘‘topsy-turvy,’’ and asserted 
that the position, during life, of that which had always been 
looked upon as the basal sponge was at the top of the 
‘* olass-rope,” which, instead of growing upwards, really 
struck downwards into the mud at the sea bottom, like the 
roots of a plant. Dr. W. B. Carpenter had said that the dis- 
coveries made in the expedition referred to had satisfied 
Professor Wyville Thompson and himself that the sponge 
and the long spicules were, as Max Schultz averred, portions 
of the same organism, and that the “coral-forming polyps ”” 
of Dr. Gray—the ‘ oscules’’ of Dr. Bowerbank—were zoan- 
thoid polyps, which generally attached themselves to the 
‘«class-rope” of Hyalonena, but which were by no means 
confined to it alone, as Professor Thompson said he had 
himself found them on other substances, and had also found 
Hyalonema entirely free from the polypoid investment. Mr. 
Lee then described the beantiful Euplectella (Aleyoncellum 
of Quoy and Gaimard), sometimes called ‘‘ Venus’s Flower 
Basket,” the first specimen of which brought to this country 
was sold to the British Museum for £30; for examples of 
which he and Dr. W. B. Carpenter gave, three years ago, 
£5 each, and which were now so plentiful that they could be 
obtained for five shillings or less. Mr. Lee also exhibited 
and described the new sponge, Pheronema Grayit, the 
discovery of which, he said, was closely connected with 
the Croydon Microscopical Club. One of the gentlemen 
who were Mr. Lee’s guests at the opening of the Club 
in April last, was Mr. Marshall Hall, owner of the schooner 
yacht ‘‘ Norna,’’ who earnestly invited Mr. Lee to accom- 
pany him on a dredging expedition to the coast of Portugal. 
Unable to accept the invitation himself, Mr. Lee induced 
him to enlist for this delightful work Mr. Kent, of the British 
Museum, a rising and promising young naturalist; and 
amongst the new and rare organisms which were the result 
- of the expedition, were ten specimens of a sponge possessing 
