Dr. J. E. Gray on Hyalonema Sieboldii. 267 



Japan, have the tubercle or papilla formed by the contracted 

 animal cylindrical, prominent, and truncated, and very unlike 

 the slightly raised elongated oblong papilla of the contracted 

 animal of the Portuguese specimens oi Hyalonema lusitanicum'^ 

 and the bark of all of them is covered with a sand-like coat, 

 very different from the smooth bark of those which inhabit 

 the Atlantic Ocean. 



Secondly, it is interesting as showing that the Japanese 

 species, like the Portuguese one, sometimes lives free, and has 

 the base of the coil entirely covered with animals, some of 

 them being situated on the very extremity of the base. Indeed, 

 from the number of specimens of this form that have been 

 brought home in this collection, it may be as common as those 

 that live in sponges ; but, not being of such a large size, the 

 latter may be preferred both by the collectors and the persons 

 who purchase them and bring them over to this country. 



In the collection there are two anomalous specimens. One 

 of them differs from all the other specimens of both varieties 

 in the coil being much more slender, formed of a comparatively 

 small number of spicules, and very much longer than any of 

 them. The coil is about 24 inches long, and scarcely half an 

 inch in circumference. The bark that remains on the coil is 

 thinner than usual, but is studded with regular, equal-sized, 

 normal-shaped papillse, but of a smaller size than in the other 

 specimens. 



The other specimen has been evidently manipulated 

 by the Japanese ; and though the base is covered with pa- 

 pillae, it is clear that the coil (or, rather, the two united coils of 

 which it appears to be formed) belongs to corals that were 

 attached to a sponge. This coil is very thick, and formed of 

 very numerous spicules ; the lower half and the conically 

 attenuated base is covered with short strips of bark that have 

 been artificially applied round it when the bark was in a fresh 

 or moist state ; the papillae on the bark, being probably taken 

 from more than one specimen, are of very unequal sizes, and, 

 from manipulation, of irregular form. The eggs of two sharks 

 have also been artificially attached to this specimen. 



Specimens which have been thus artificially doctored are 

 easily known from those that are covered with the proper bark 

 of the coil. In the latter the papillae or contracted animals 

 have a regular arrangement and a uniform shape and size; 

 while the tubercles or papillae of the bark that has been arti- 

 ficially applied are irregularly arranged and generally more or 

 less distorted by the manipulation. 



P.S. I have no doubt there has been a considerable impor- 

 tation of specimens of Hyalonema. Mr. Cutter has sent me 



