18 DR. J. S. BOWERBANK ON HYALONEMA MIRABILB. [Jan. 10, 



4. On Hyalonema mirabile. 

 By J. S. BowERBANKj LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 



(Plates IV. & V.) 



Hyalonema was named and described by Dr. J. E. Gray in the 

 Society's 'Proceedings' for 1835, p. 63, from a specimen sent from 

 China to the India House iu London, nnder the name of the Glass 

 Plant, and subsequently in a paper published in the Society's * Pro- 

 ceedings ' for 1857, p. 2/9, entitled "Synopsis of the Famihes and 

 Genera of Axiferous Zoophytes or Barked Corals." The author 

 designates it as a Coral, and describes it as follows : — 



"Famil}'!. HvALONEMADiE. 



" Coral subcylindrical, rather attenuated, and immersed in a fixed 

 sponge. Axis in the form of numerous elongated, slender, filiform, 

 siliceous fibres, extending from end to end of the Coral, arid slightly 

 twisted together like a rope. Bark fleshy, granular, strengthened 

 with short cylindrical spicula ; polypiferous cells scattered, rather 

 produced, wart-like, with a flat radiated tip. 



*' 1 . Hyalonema, Gray. 

 " The character of the famih% 



"1, Hyalonema MiRABiLTS. B.M. 



"Hyalonema mirahilis, Gray, Syn. B.M. 1830, 118. 

 "Hyalonema sieboldii. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, 63 ; Dana, 

 Expedition, 642. 



"Japan {Sir Hans Sloane ; Siebolcl). 



" The Coral, as it is usually seen, consists of three distinct por- 

 tions of verjr different texture and appearance — the axis, bark, and 

 the sponge." 



The author then proceeds to describe each of these parts in detail, 

 and in page 282 he writes, " The sponge to Avhich it is attached has 

 no real connexion with the Coral, except as affording it the means of 

 support, and is of the common structure." And subsequently he 

 states it as his opinion that "There can be no doubt, after the exa- 

 mination of the two specimens in the British jNIuseum, one in my 

 own collection, one in Paris, and several in the Leyden Museum, 

 that the bark evidently belongs to the axis, and that this Coral is a 

 true Zoophyte, and not a sponge covered with a jiarasitic Zoophyte, 

 as it is regarded by M. Valenciennes (see Milne-Edwards, British 

 Corals, 81)." In the first sentence quoted the author asserts that 

 the sponge is a part of the Coral ; in the commencement of the fol- 

 lowing paragraphs he decidedlj' denies the counexion existing between 

 them ; but I presume that the latter is the real opinion of the author. 

 In the 'Annals and Magazine' for October, 1866, Dr Gray corrects 



