290 =Dr.J.E. Gray on the “ Glass-Rope”’? Hyalonema. 
ques spécimens du Japon, n’a pas lieu sur aucun des exemplaires 
du Portugal ;” and he further observes that the thin basal por- 
tion of the axis which is inserted in the sponge in some of the 
Japanese specimens is covered with the polype-bearing bark, 
the polypes near the base being smaller. “Chez ces derniers 
(les exemplaires du Portugal) le coriwm polypigerum enveloppe 
Vaxis d’une maniére uniforme, il recouvre parfaitement lune 
des extrémités de Vaxis, la plus étroite, et de la il sétend 
sans aucune interruption jusqu’aux 2 ou les 3 de la longueur 
totale. Les polypes placés sur l’extrémité de Vaxis sont les 
plus petits de tous” (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 663, & 1864, 
t. 22. f. 2). 
These observations seem to have been carefully made; and 
they not only show that the hving sunk in the sponge is not 
universal in the genus, but they completely dispose of the theory 
to which I shall have to refer, that what is called the axis of the 
coral is in fact an integral part of the sponge, in which the 
coral lives, and that what is called the bark is only a parasitic 
Polythoa that accidentally grows on the elongated spicula of the 
sponge. 
It would be very interesting to know how the Portuguese 
species lives, and how it keeps itself erect in the sea, as in those 
species also the polypes seem to be equally developed on every 
side of the cylindrical coral ; and this could not be the case if it 
did not live erect or nearly so. It cannot float like the cylin- 
drical compound Meduse, as the axis renders the coral too 
heavy for that purpose, and there is no inflated float to overcome 
the specific gravity of the coral. 
It is to be hoped that Professor Bocage, who is still studying 
the subject, will be able to explain this part of the history of the 
animal. 
The Japanese, who collect these “Glass Ropes” as ornaments, 
are in the habit of inserting a bunch of them in the holes made 
in the rock by the Pholades. A series of specimens so stuck 
into a Pholas-hole was exhibited by Mr. Huxley at the Linnean 
Society last year. Professor Brandt has figured a similar group 
(t.2.f.1). But it is quite a mistake to suppose that this is the 
way in which the ‘‘ Glass Rope” lives in the sea. In the speci- 
men which I examined, the cement could be seen by which they 
were attached to the holes; and the specimens in the same 
group varied from 2 inches to 16 inches in length, and they 
all had the bark pushed down so as to be near the surface of 
the hole. I saw one specimen placed in a hole, affixed with 
the thick end of the spicula and the broadest end of the rope 
downwards. 
In 1857, MM. Milne-Edwards and Haime, in the first volume 
