Dr. J. E. Gray on the “Glass-Rope” Hyalonema. 291 
of the ‘ Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires, ou Polypes propre- 
ment’ etc., observe, ‘ Nous sommes portés a croire qu’il faudra 
ranger dans ce sous-ordre des Zoanthaires sclérodermes, a la suite 
des ” Antipathiens, un zocphyte trés-remarquable des mers du 
Japon, qui se compose dun coenenchyme cortical, renfermant 
un faisceau de baguettes siliceuses trés-gréles, tordu en spirale 
comme une corde dont les crins seraient faits avec du cristal. Le 
ccenenchyme est farci de petits spicules, et porte des tubercules 
déprimés dont le sommet est perforé et parait étre le calice du 
polype. Souvent laxe fasciculé se dénude par sa base, et se 
trouve implanté dans une éponge; mais, d’aprés M. Gray, celle-ci 
y est étrangére. Je dois ajouter cependant que suivant M. Valen- 
ciennes ce singulier zoophyte appartiendrait & la famille des 
éponges ” (p. 324). And in their Monograph of British Fossil 
Corals, p. Ixxxi, they observe, “The genus Hyalonema established 
by Mr. Gray is also referred by some zoologists to the tribe 
Gorgonie ; but the recent observations of M. Valenciennes tend 
to establish that the fasciculus of siliceous thread which consti- 
tutes the axis of this singular production belongs to the class of 
Spongie ; and the polypes which we have observed in a dried 
state on different parts of the axis appear to be parasites belong- 
ing to the order Zoantharia.”’ 
In 1860 Professor Max Schultze published the elaborate essay 
above quoted ; and he regards the rope of siliceous spicula as 
part of a sponge, and the polypes as parasitic on it, calling the 
polypes “ Polythoa fatua mihi” (pp. 28 & 42). 
Dr. Bowerbank, adopting the same view, in his lately pub- 
lished work on British Sponges, gives the following as the ge- 
neric character of the genus Hyalonema :—“ Skeleton an inde- 
finite network of siliceous spicula, composed of separate elon- 
gated fasciculi, reposing on a continuous membrane, having the 
middle of the sponge perforated vertically by an extended spiral 
fasciculus of single elongated and very large spicula, forming 
an axial skeleton of a columnar cloacal ‘system ” (vol. 11. p. 9). 
I must confess that I do not understand this description. If 
the fasciculus of fibres is “a cloacal system,” how is it that the 
fibres have no connexion with the sponges, but are separated 
from the spiral fascicle by a hardened coat most closely 
attached to the elongated spicula? And if the rope is entirely 
covered with the zoophytes, as we have every reason to believe 
is the case, and as M. Brandt’s figures show, what is the use of 
a “cloacal system” which has no exit? It has occurred to me, 
as Dr. Bowerbank does not take any notice of the polype-bear- 
ing bark that covers the axis, that he confounds the polypes 
witli the oscula of the sponge, and, believing them to be oscula, 
thinks they are the exits from the ‘cloacal system he describes. 
