124 DR. J. E. GRAY ON HYALONEMA LL'SITANICUM. [Jail. 24, 



the polypes (which equally cover the axis in both cases) in the other 

 — that is to say, in two genera of the same family ? 



Some of the siliceous spicules found in the inner layer of the bark 

 of the axis or coil of the Japanese species are similar in form to those 

 which are found in the sponge on which it grows (see Sohultze, t. 3. 

 f. 1 1-14 ; Brandt, t. 3. f. 15, 16)*. They differ from the spicula in 

 the sponge in being smaller in size, stouter, and more spinose ; but 

 when you see the very variable forms the spicules of the sponge 

 assume, and how the forms blend into each, as well shown by 

 Schultze, t. 1. f. 3, 4, the passage from the spicula of the sponge 

 to those of the bark can easily be believed by a casual observer ; but 

 those of the bark and of the sponge each keep their own peculiar 

 form and position, and are never found intermixed. 



Some microscopists, who frequently pay little attention but to the 

 "microscopic object," and therefore take a narrow view of the affi- 

 nities of animals, place great reliance on this similarity of the spi- 

 cules of the polypes and the sponge, and regard them as the same. 

 This would have weight, if the perfect organization and development 

 of the polypes did not prevent me from accepting Dr. Bowerbank's 

 theory that the bark is part of the sponge. But, admitting as we 

 must that the coil is covered with well-developed polypes, the exist- 

 ence of these cruciform or subcruciform spinulose spicules does not 

 offer us any assistance to discover whether the polypes are parasi- 

 tical or are the makers of the coil ; and they have been observed by 

 the advocates of each theory, as above quoted, only so far as one may 

 argue that, if the polypes develope these cruciform siliceous spi- 

 cules and also cylindrical ones in the bark, there is less difficulty in 

 believing that they also develope the siliceous tilifonn spicules of the 

 coil or axis. 



Dr. William Lockhart states that the Japanese Hijalonema is 

 found growing; on the rocks off the island of Enosima, near the old 

 capital Kamakura, and not far from Yokohama. The fishermen offer 

 these sponges with their siliceous fibres for sale to visitors at the 

 temples of Enosima. 



The Japanese are intelligent and patient peoplCj and they manu- 

 facture many articles of the coils of spicules of this coral. They 

 sell them with one or more bands of coloured or gold paper put 

 round them to keep them together, or they enclose the narrow base 

 of the coil with spiral strips of paper, strips of cloth or ribbon, form- 

 ing them into an aigrette ; these are prepared for the general 

 market. Oddly enough, when they, or some of the fishermen, 

 must have stripped the bark off the coil, they prepare others evi- 

 dently for the more scientific purchasers. Thus I have seen a spe- 

 cimen which had the thin lower end of the coil enclosed in a spiral 

 band of paper covered over with a coil of string having knots at cer- 

 tain distances. This was all covered with sand and minute particles 



* Professor Brandt considers the spicules to belong to different species, call- 

 ing the one at the base Sponyia octancyra (p. 14J, and the other in the bark 

 Sponyia spiuicriicis (p. 23). 



