274 Dr. J. E. Gray on Hyalonemata. 
A. With parasitic sponge on apex. 
H. Sieboldii, Gray, Brandt, Symb. t. 1. f. 4,5; Schultze, Hyalonemen, 
belt 2.8 Wy 2: 
H. mirabile, Bowerb. P. Z. 8. 1867, t. 4. £. 8. 
B. Without the sponge, but with the part of the coil deprived 
of polypes where it had been. 
H, Steboldii, Brandt, Symbol. t. 1. f. 2,5, 6, 7, t. 2. f. 2. 
Hab. Japan. 
In examining some thirty-seven specimens which have lately 
arrived in London from the same locality in Japan, I find the 
contracted animals vary considerably in form and size. They 
are generally nearly uniform in size and distance from each 
other in the same specimen. In one with small close polypes 
I found a small oblong cluster of some twenty or twenty-five 
polypes, rather smaller than the others, all crowded together 
into a mass. = 
Some three or four specimens had the contracted animals 
considerably larger and further apart, not quite regularly cir- 
cular in shape ; but they are very different from the contracted 
animals of H. lusitanicum. 
One specimen without any sponge had the polypes very 
irregularly dispersed—some far apart, others very close, and 
even clustered together forming irregular prominences. ‘This 
specimen is somewhat like [Hyalocheta Possieti (Brandt, Sym- 
bol. ii. t. 2. f. 6); but the polypes are not quite so long and 
prominent as in that figure. The study of these specimens 
and others I have seen induces me to believe that there is only 
a single rather variable species found in Japan. 
Unfortunately all the sponges on Japan Hyalonemata I have 
been able to examine have been in a bad state, with an eroded 
surface, as if they had been worn by the sea; and that is pro- 
bably the condition of the ones figured by Schultze, though 
the oscules are represented as complete; but the surface of the 
sponge, judging from the sunken part of some of the speci- 
mens in the complete state, is covered with a close-grained 
dermal layer. They have generally been crushed in pack- 
ing or drying; some exhibit circular perforations on the sur- 
face. They vary greatly in shape, some being large and ob- 
long, others contracted, ovate-elongate, like Brandt’s t.1. f. 4, 5. 
I believe these forms arise from their being squeezed when 
taken out of the sea, or after being washed. There are three 
specimens in the British Museum, one only anything like 
perfect, which, ovate-elongate before it was soaked in water, 
is conical cup-shaped, with a large conical cavity reaching 
