488 Dr. J. E. Gray on Euplectella speciosa. 
to understand how and why they referred it to that genus, 
which seems to have been established on another sponge 
which they brought home, and which is not noticed im the 
‘ Zoology’ of their ‘Voyage ;’ hence we can only suppose that it 
was overlooked. 
In 1836, M. Milne-Edwards, in the second edition of Lamarck’s 
‘Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertébres,’ vol. ii. p. 588, 
adds, at the end of the Sponges, a note on the genus Alcyon- 
cellum, obviously compiled from Quoy and Gaimard’s imperfect 
figure: he refers to <Alcyoncellum speciosum of the ‘Voyage 
of the Astrolabe’ as the type, evidently overlooking the original 
description of the genus in Blainville’s ‘ Zoophytes,’ quoted in 
Quoy and Gaimard’s work. 
In 1841 Professor Owen, in the Transactions of the Zoological 
Society (vol. i. p. 203, t. 13), deseribed and figured a nearly 
perfect specimen, under the name of Huplectella aspergillum, 
which was obtamed by Mr. Cuming in the Philippines, and is 
now in the British Museum; and in the Transactions of the 
Linnean Society (vol. xx. p. 117, t. 21) he describes and figures 
a very nearly allied species, under the name of Huplectella 
cucumer, from a specimen (in the collection of Dr. Farre) which 
was obtained from the Seychelle Islands. 
The genus Alcyoncellum was established by De Blainville, in 
1882, in the ‘ Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,’ and again 
in his ‘Manuel d’Actinologie,’ p. 529, on a marine specimen 
brought to Paris by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, with the following 
characters :—“ Body fixed, soft, gelatinous, solidified by tricuspid 
spicules, tree-like, with few branches, cylindrical, fistulous, with 
a terminal orifice; the substance thick, composed of regular 
granules, polygonal, alveoliform, pierced with an exterior and 
internal pore.” The type is Alcyoncellum gelatinosum, figured at 
t. 92. f. 5 of the Atlas of plates tothe Manual. It is clear from 
the above description that it has nothmg in common with A. 
speciosum; and A. gelatinosum seems to be most probably a cal- 
careous sponge nearly allied to the genus Grantia of Fleming. 
Professor Owen’s description and figure of Huplectella asper- 
gillum leave little to be desired. The cornucopia is put on the 
plate with the broad end downwards. Perhaps the artist was 
deceived by the name “Aspergillum,” and thought that, like the 
shell so named, the sponge lived with its broader, fringed, and 
perforated end sunk im the sand. In the figure of E. cucumer 
the sponge is represented erect and attached. Professor Owen, 
by a slip of the pen, writes Quoy and Gaimard’s Aleyoncellum 
as Alcyonellum, and then says the name cannot be used for the 
sponge, because Lamarck has applied the name Alcyonella to a 
genus ‘of freshwater Polypes.” 
