and Nomenclature of SiJonges. 169 



come into use ; for if the author is too idle to describe them 

 when he names them, and therefore defers doing so, it is very- 

 likely that he will never have the time or the inclination to 

 do it. The insertion of these MS. names is so easy that the 

 writer may give names to specimens without sufficient exami- 

 nation for ascertaining if they are distinct. Dr. Bowerbank 

 has fallen into this error repeatedly, as I have pointed out in 

 this paper. In the first two pages of the explanation of the 

 plates, vol. i. pp. 229, 230, Halicfiondria coccinea^ Bowerbank, 

 H. Alderi^ Bowerb., H. crustula, Bowerb., and H. vartantia, 

 Bowerb., are each mentioned. I do not find any of them de- 

 scribed. They are probably British species to which other 

 names have been given. The last may be Hymeniacidon va- 

 riant ia, Bowerb. Brit. Spong. fig. 174; but no reference is 

 made to the figure or the name. 



Dr. Bowerbank, because he has found that the Sponge at- 

 tached to a single specimen of Hyalonema lusitamcum, out of 

 twelve that have been obtained belonging to the genus Car- 

 teria, has the same spicules as the Sponge attached to the 

 Japanese Hyalonema, concludes that the two species are only 

 one, and blames me for having formed them into two genera. 

 He has entirely overlooked the fact that the barks of the 

 Portuguese and Japanese species are of very different texture, 

 that the animals when contracted are of very diiferent form 

 (the one circular and the other oval), and that they have a 

 different number of tentacles, in one placed in a double, in the 

 other in a single row. Now, whether the polype forming the 

 bark is a part of the coral or a parasite is a matter that may 

 be open to discussion ; but the difference in the structures of 

 the polypes is sufficient to distinguish them from each other 

 as species or genera. 



But it is not astonishing that Dr. Bowerbank should over- 

 look such differences ; for he seems to have the faculty of 

 seeing what he desires, and of not seeing what he does not 

 wish to see. Thus, for example, he persists in denying the 

 existence of the tentacles and cnidia in the polypes of the 

 genus Hyalonema, though they have been figured by Brandt, 

 Schultze, and Bocage, and have been seen by hundreds of 

 persons at the late soirde of the Microscopic Society, where 

 they were exhibited by Mr. Lee, Mr. Steward, and several 

 other microscopists. 



I am not convinced of the identity of the Sponge found at- 

 tached to the Japanese and Portuguese specimens of Hyalo- 

 nema. Professor Bocage sent me a fragment of the Sponge 

 attached to the Portuguese Hyalonema. I examined it very 

 carefully, and could only find needle-like spicules, without 



