Dr. J. EK. Gray on the “Glass-Rope” Hyalonema. 287 
XXXVII.—Note on the “ Glass-Rope” Hyalonema. By Dr. 
J.B. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S. &c. 
In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1835, p. 63, 
I described and formed the genus Hyalonema for a specimen 
that had been sent from China to the India House in London, 
under the name of the Glass Plant. I afterwards procured a 
specimen from Leyden, and found that it was an inhabitant of 
the Japan seas, whence it had been procured by Dr. Siebold. 
Since the trade with Japan has been opened, many specimens 
of the coral have been received from the latter country, where 
they do not seem to be uncommon, and where at least they are 
collected, on account of their beauty, as objects of commerce. 
In 1857, Prof. John Frederick Brandt, of St. Petersburg, de- 
scribed a coral that had been brought from Japan by M. Possiet, 
one of the officers of the Russian Expedition, which agrees with 
the Glass-Rope of Japan in many particulars, but has the po- 
lypes much more produced and crowded; therefore he formed 
it into a genus, which he described under the name of Hyalo- 
cheta Possieti, Bull. Scien. de Acad. d. Science. d. St. Pétersb. 
xvi. n. 5, Mélanges, Biolog. 11. 606. 
Both these Japanese corals and a species: of Hyalonema which 
he calls Hyalonema affine are described in detail and well figured 
in a special work on the subject, entitled ‘ Joannes Fredericus 
Brandtii Symbol ad Polypos Hyalochetides spectantes, tabulis 
iv. illustrate, Petropoli 1859,” large folio. 
My Ayalonema Sieboldi, of Japan, has been well figured and 
described by Professor Max Schultze in ‘ Die Hyalonemen, ein 
Beitrag zur Naturgeschichte der Spongien,’ von Max Schultze, 
mit fiinf zum Theil in Farbendruck ausgefiihrten Tafeln: Bonn, 
1860, 4to. 
These works leave very little more to be said on the structure 
of these corals. 
Very recently a species of the genus has been discovered on 
the coast of Portugal, which has been described and figured in 
the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ in two papers by 
Professor J. V. Barboza du Bocage, of Lisbon :—1. “ Note sur la 
Découverte Vun Zoophyte de la Famille Hyalochetides sur la 
cote du Portugal” (P. Z. 8. 1864, p. 265); 2. “Sur P Habitat 
du Hyalonema lusitanicum” (P.Z. 8. 1865, p. 662). 
The Japanese species, according to the observations of Prof. 
Brandt, have only twenty tentacles, while Prof. Bocage describes 
the Portuguese species as having forty, and also as seeming to 
differ in its habits. 
I may note that Dr. Leidy, who agrees with Valenciennes in 
thinking the bark of Hyalonema a parasite, says there is a sponge 
