Mr Leslie on a Specimen of Euplectella Aspergillum. 75 



Society.* Professor Owen supposed that the narrower 

 extremity of the sponge, with its prolongation of siliceous 

 fibres, was the upper free end, and that the wide extremity 

 was embedded in the mud or sand of the sea-bottom. It is 

 now known that the narrower end is basal, its fibrous terminal 

 appendages serving as an anchor to the organism. A similar 

 misconception was long current in regard to Hyalonema, the 

 glass-rope sponge of Japan, which was described and figured 

 as if the cup-like sponge was the embedded part, while the 

 siliceous rope, with its encrusting pcdythoa, was free. It is 

 thus necessary, in reading Professor Owen's description, 

 to reverse his terms of upper and lower, apical and 

 basal, etc. 



In 1857 Professor Owen described -f a second species of the 

 same genus, Euplcctella cucumer, differing from E. aspergilkim 

 by its ventricose shape, the absence of the lateral wavy 

 ridges, and in other characters. This specimen was received 

 from the Seychelles. Up to this period no second example 

 of E. aspergillum seems to have reached this country, as the 

 author still terms it unique. In the same paper an account 

 is given of the capture of the type specimen of Euplectella 

 asjjergilhtvi. It was said to have been got by a fisherman off 

 the island of Bohol on a rocky bottom, at a depth of ten 

 fathoms. Considering the extreme reluctance of the Philip- 

 pine islanders to show the fishing-grounds of Euplectella, and 

 the facts that they have been obtained by Europeans at 

 depths of not less than ninety fathoms, and on a soft muddy 

 bottom, it is probable that the ingenious mariner's account of 

 its capture in ten fathoms on a rocky bottom displayed a 

 greater share of sagacity than of candour. 



Within recent years the skeletons of Eujjlectella aspergillum 

 have been brought to this country in large numbers, so that 

 from being one of the rarest of zoological treasures, it has 

 now become a very familiar object in our museums. Its 

 beauty and symmetry have procured for it the popular name 

 of " Venus's fiower-basket." More lately it has been obtained 

 with the sarcode or sponge-flesh adhering to it, and Sir 



* Vol. iii., X). 203. t Trans. Liuii. Soc, vol. xxii. 



