THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 111. MARCH 1867. 



XXVI. — On Hyalonema. By Professor Max Schultze. 



The singular Hyalonema (Glass Rope) from Japan, as to the 

 nature of which the opinions of naturalists differ in many respects, 

 has lately been discussed at considerable length in this journal 

 (No. 106, October, 1866, p. 287). Dr. J. E. Gray, the celebrated 

 zoologist of the British Museum, seeks to prove, in the paper 

 just cited, that the opinion of several naturalists who refer 

 Hyalonema to the Sponges is erroneous. In opposition to it, he 

 maintains the opinion long since expressed by him (1835) that 

 the *' Glass Rope " constitutes the axis and the product of a 

 polype. In accordance with the views expressed in the mono- 

 graph of Professor Brandt of St. Petersburg, he classifies Hyalo- 

 nema with the Polypes, and regards a sponge observed at the 

 lower extremity of many specimens of Hyalonema as a parasite ; 

 whilst his opponents maintain that the sponge and the " Glass 

 Rope " belong to each other, and that the undoubted polype 

 which usually coats the latter is the parasite. 



As I have very carefully examined a great number of Hyalo- 

 nemata in the Leyden Museum, and published the results in a 

 detailed monograph (Die Hyalonemen, ein Beitrag zur Natur- 

 geschichtc der Spongien : Bonn, 1860), and have subsequently 

 had many others through my hands, and, indeed, myself possess 

 some very fine ones, I venture to contribute a word or two to 

 the dispute, in the hope that they may assist in the deter- 

 mination of the truth. 



Thus there is at any rate one parasite in the case, and this 

 causes the difference of opinion. The only question is, whether 

 the polype is the parasite on the sponge, or the sponge the 

 parasite on the polype. A priori no decision can be arrived at 

 upon this point; for both the organisms in question live as 

 parasites, inasmuch as they attach themselves to various foreign 

 bodies in the sea. We must therefore bring together the reasons 

 for and against each of these modes of parasitism. 



^7171. ^ Mag. N. Hist, Ser. 3. Vol. xix. 11 



