Dr. J. E. Gray on the " Glass-Rope " Hyalonema. 287 



XXXVII. — Note on the "Glass-Rope" Hyalonema. By Dr. 

 J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S. &c. 



In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1835, p. 63, 

 I described and formed the genus Hyalonema for a specimen 

 that had been sent from China to the India House in London, 

 under the name of the Glass Plant. I afterwards procured a 

 specimen from Leyden, and found that it was an inhabitant of 

 the Japan seas, whence it had been procured by Dr. Siebold. 

 Since the trade with Japan has been opened, many specimens 

 of the coral have been received from the latter country, where 

 they do not seem to be uncommon, and where at least they arq 

 collected, on account of their beauty, as objects of commerce. 



In 1857, Prof. John Frederick Brandt, of St. Petersburg, de- 

 scribed a coral that had been brought from Japan by M. Possiet, 

 one of the officers of the Russian Expedition, which agrees with 

 the Glass-Rope of Japan in many particulars, but has the po- 

 lypes much more produced and crowded; therefore he formed 

 it into a genus, which he described under the name of Hyalo- 

 chceta Possieti, Bull. Scien. de FAcad. d. Scienc. d. St. Petersb. 

 xvi. n. 5, Melanges, Biolog. ii. 606. 



Both these Japanese corals and a species of Hyalonema which 

 he calls Hyalonema aJjUne are described in detail and well figured 

 in a special work on the subject, entitled " Joannes Fredericus 

 Brandtii Symbolse ad Polypos Hyalochsetides spectantes, tabulis 

 iv. illustratse. Petropoli 1859," large folio. 



My Hyalonema Sieboldi, of Japan, has been well figured and 

 described by Professor Max Schultze in 'Die Hyalonemen, ein 

 Beitrag zur Naturgeschichte der Spongien,^ von Max Schultze, 

 niit fiinf zum Theil in Farbendruck ausgefiihrten Tafeln : Bonn, 

 1860, 4to. 



These works leave very little more to be said on the structure 

 of these corals. 



Very recently a species of the genus has been discovered on 

 the coast of Portugal, which has been described and figured in 

 the * Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' in two papers by 

 Professor J. V. Barboza du Bocage, of Lisbon : — 1 . " Note sur la 

 Decouverte d'un Zoophyte de la Famille Hyalochatides sur U 

 cote du Portugal" (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 265) ; 2. ''Sur THabitat 

 du Hyalonema lusitanicum" (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 662). 



The Japanese species, according to the observations of Prof. 

 Brandt, have only twenty tentacles, while Prof. Bocage describes 

 the Portuguese species as having forty, and also as seeming to 

 differ in its habits. 



I may note that Dr. Leidy, who agrees with Valenciennes ia 

 thinking the bark of Hyalonema a parasite, says there is a sponge 



