Venus' Floiver-baslcet. 16o 



When single fibres are separated from the Eupledella, they 

 are found to possess a considerable degree of elasticity, in 

 this respect resembling spun glass, and they may be bent, to 

 some extent, without breaking. Holding a fibre in a spirit 



Fig- 3. — Frill or Furbelow of 'Ewplectella speciosa, magnified- 



lamp causes it to split, aud fly to pieces, but if the process is 

 carefully managed, aud the burnt portion is examined under 

 the microscope, the character of its formation, by the super- 

 position of concentric fibres will be discovered. Likewise, if a 

 number of ends of broken threads be examined, some will be 

 found to exhibit the aspect of a series of tubes, like the draw 

 tubes of a telescope, one entering into the other. 



The production of such an exquisite and complicated frame- 

 work as the Yenus' Flower-basket, by precipitation of silex in 

 a film of sarcode, is, in the highest degree curious and instruc- 

 tive. Probably purely chemical laws of precipitation, under 

 certain conditions, combine with those other laws — whatever 

 they may be — which determine the vital processes of the or- 

 ganization. 



The base of my specimen has a rounded form, and is 

 shaggy with the white hair-like fibres, amongst which are 

 entangled a mass of minute shells, foraminifera, mud particles, 

 and sundry spicules ; but I have not in the base, or anywhere 

 else, found any of the elegant flower-like four-rayed spicules 

 figured by Dr. Bowerbank, and which probably belong to the 

 sarcode, and have been washed away from mine, and other 

 sponges that have been carefully cleaned, in order to exhibit 

 the beauty of the skeleton in a more perfect way. 



