Bibliographical Notices. 295 
are composed, and the sheath of fleshy matter or corium with 
which each is surrounded. The existence of this sheath, which 
is of the same structure and substance as the inner layer of the 
bark, I have always regarded as a proof that the spicules were 
formed by the community of Palythoe that compose the bark 
or corium. 
The long free filamentous spicules of the Huplectella, which 
are regarded by Dr. Max Schultze and Prof. Wyville Thomson 
as most resembling in form the spicules of the axis of the Hya- 
lonema, have an acute simple tip, or have the tip armed with 
three or more recurved hooks, as figured by Bowerbank. It 
is curious how Dr. Max Schultze, who has figured the pecu- 
liar structure of the spicules of Hyalonema, and must have 
seen the spicules of the Hzplectella furnished with hooks, 
could have thought of uniting the two genera into a group, 
which he called Lophiospongie ; for nothing can be more dis- 
tinct than the structure, form, and use of the spicules of these 
two genera belonging to orders of animals of such different 
degrees of organization. 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
Coleoptera Hesperidum, being an enumeration of the Coleopterous In- 
sects of the Cape Verde Archipelago. By T. Vernon Wo.zaston, 
M.A., F.L.S. 8vo. London: Van Voorst, 1867. 
How far Mr. Wollaston is warranted in applying the term Hes- 
perides to the southernmost cluster of the North Atlantic islands 
is a question which we must leave to the classical student for deci- 
sion; perhaps they have as good a right to the title as any others. 
But to the entomologist, since the publication of the book whose 
title is given above, the Hesperides will most certainly be identified 
with the Cape Verde Islands, seeing that Mr. Wollaston’s visit to 
them has enabled him to present his brother entomologists with a 
treasure of higher value than any amount of golden apples ever 
guarded by the most terrible of dragons. 
The materials for the ‘ Coleoptera Hesperidum’ have been chiefly 
collected by Mr. Wollaston himself, during a visit to the little 
archipelago in Mr. Gray’s yacht. Mr.Gray, Mr. Hamlet Clark, and 
Mr. Lowe had also previously landed on some of the islands; and 
Mr. Wollaston acknowledges the receipt of specimens from some 
other gentlemen ; but the arid nature of the group, in some of the 
islands of which rain scarcely ever falls, renders the most careful 
working unproductive, and accordingly the whole number of species 
obtained from all sources amounts only to 278. This number might 
perhaps be slightly increased by an investigation of the three eastern 
islands of the group, which Mr. Wollaston did not visit; but the very 
name of “ Salt Islands” applied to these seems to indicate that pro- 
