488 Dr. J. E. Gray on Euplectella speciosa. 



to understand how and why they referred it to that genus, 

 which seems to have been estabhshed on another sponge 

 which they brought home, and which is not noticed in the 

 ' Zoology ' of their 'Voyage ;' hence we can only suppose that it 

 was overlooked. . 



In 1836, M.Milne-Edwards, in the second edition of Lamarck^s 

 ' Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres,' vol. ii. p. 588, 

 adds, at the end of the Sponges, a note on the genus Alajon- 

 cellum, obviously compiled from Quoy and Gaimard^s imperfect 

 figure : he refers to Alcyoncellum speciosum of the 'Voyage 

 of the Astrolabe ' as the type, evidently overlooking the original 

 description of the genus in Blainville's ' Zoophytes,' quoted in 

 Quoy and Gaimard's work. 



In 1841 Professor Owen, in the Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society (vol. iii. p. 203, 1. 13), described and figured a nearly 

 perfect specimen, under the name of Euplectella aspergillum, 

 which was obtained by Mr. Cuming in the Philippines, and is 

 now in the British Museum ; and in the Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society (vol. xxii. p. 117, t. 21) he describes and figures 

 a very nearly allied species, under the name of Euplectella 

 cucumer, from a specimen (in the collection of Dr. Farre) which 

 was obtained from the Seychelle Islands. 



The genus AlcTjoncellum was established by De Blainville, in 

 1832, in the ' Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,' and again 

 in his 'Manuel d'Actinologie,' p. 529, on a marine specimen 

 brought to Paris by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, with the following 

 characters : — " Body fixed, soft, gelatinous, solidified by tricuspid 

 spicules, tree-like, with few branches, cylindrical, fistulous, with 

 a terminal orifice; the substance thick, composed of regular 

 granules, polygonal, alveoliform, pierced with an exterior and 

 internal pore.''' The type is Alcyoncellum gelatinosum, figured at 

 t. 92. f. 5 of the Atlas of plates to the Manual. It is clear from 

 the above description that it has nothing in common with A. 

 speciosum ; and A. gelatinosum seems to be most probably a cal- 

 careous sponge nearly allied to the genus Grantia of Fleming. 



Professor Owen's description and figure of Euplectella asper- 

 gillum leave little to be desired. The cornucopia is put on the 

 plate with the broad end downwards. Perhaps the artist was 

 deceived by the name " Aspergillum," and thought that, like the 

 shell so named, the sponge lived with its broader, fringed, and 

 perforated end sunk in the sand. In the figure of E. cucumer 

 the sponge is represented erect and attached. Professor Owen, 

 by a slip of the pen, writes Quoy and Gaimard's Alcyoncellum 

 as Alcyonellum, and then says tlie name cannot be used for the 

 sponge, because Lamarck has applied the name Alcyonella to a 

 genus " of freshwater Polypes." 



