274 Dr. J. E. Gray on Hyalonemata. 



A. Witli parasitic sponge on apex. 



H. Sieholdii, Gray, Brandt, Symb. t. 1. f. 4, 5 : Schultze, Hyaloncmen, 



t. 1 t. 2. f. 1 2. 

 H. 'mirahiie, Bowerb. P. Z. S. 1867, t. 4. f. 3. 



B. Without the sponge, but with the part of the coil depriYed 

 of polypes where it had been. 



H. Sieholdii, Brandt, Symbol. 1. 1. f. 2, 3, 6, 7, t. 2. f. 2. 



Hah. 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 Hyalochceta 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 1. 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 reacliing 



