Grayclhi, C)sciiliiia, <intl C'lioiia. 79' 



Tlius the prosciifc oi the same kiuil nt" j)a[)ilIit'onii inhalant 

 and c'Xi'iinx'nt oiL;anSj an<l thi'. same kind of .s[)iciik'Sj arran^cMl 

 in the same manner in these three s[)on^es, seems to me intlii- 

 bital)lj to chiim for them all the same family. 



It mii:;!it with jiistiee be stated that the sj)eeim(;n of Graijella 

 whieh 1 deseribed was also preserved in spirit, and that 1 also 

 (K'eided " upon resemblanees " the otlices of the oseular and 

 inhalant papiihe ri-s])retively ; and, further, it is possit>I(! that, 

 in the livinj^ state, tluisc papiihe mi^'ht have presented ditrcrcnt 

 forms ; perhaps the latter might have presented a fimbriated 

 margin. But, be this as it may, he must be obtuse indeed 

 who eould not see in my illustration of GrayeXla cijathophora 

 (whieh is as true to nature as I eould make it) what 1 saw in 

 the aetual speeinien, viz. which is which ; and it is this whieh 

 I fancy that I can see in Laeaze-Duthiers's illustrations of 

 OscuUna polystomelhij chietiy through my observations on the 

 living Clioiiay although I acknowledge that the dift'erenees of 

 the two systems in O. polystomella are not so unmistakably 

 marked as they are in Graijella cyathopliora. 



Grai/cUa cuathophora and OscuUna pohjstomella appear to 

 me to be free forms of tlie Clioniadre, such as the so-called 

 genus Baphyrus, which is but a free form of Cliona celata. 



The piece of oyster-shell on Avhich I have made my obser- 

 vations is too free from foreign organisms, both animal and 

 vegetable, for me to sus})ect that I have been confounding more 

 than one kind of s])onge wdth another, as has been imputed to 

 Mr. Hancock by JJr. Bowerbaidc (Kay Soc. Pub. 18(36, ' Mono- 

 gi'aph of Brit. Sponges,' vol. ii. p. 216). Undoubtedly it is 

 Cliona nort/ttimhrica, so truthfully described and illustrated 

 by Mr. Hancock in the ' Annals ' (/. c), and under " Pione " 

 in Dr. J. E. Gray's proposed arrangement of the Spongiadie 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. May 9, 1867, p. 525). Undoubtedly, 

 too, if the almost liquid Myxogastres can work their way 

 through hard wood to the surface, if the like delicate entlophytes 

 Chytriiliuniy Pythium, &c. can pierce the horn-like coverings 

 of Alga^, and the soft cell of Zyynenia can dissolve its prison- 

 walls for exit and conjugation, the amteboid sponge can burrow 

 among the layers of an oyster-shell for its subsistence — views so 

 ably put forth by Mr. Hancock {I. c.) that I am only astonished 

 how Br. Bowerbank {op. cit. p. 221) could treat such '' patient 

 merit" so unworthily. 



Almost all that I have stated was written in other and 

 better words by one of my earliest and kindest friends and 

 teachers. Dr. Grant, in 1827 (Edin. New Phil. Journ. vols. i. 

 & ii.), wdio, at that comparatively early period in the investi- 

 gation of the nature of the Spongiadie, assigned the papilli- 



