On the " Glass-Rope " Hyalonema, 85 



class, they regard all these extraneous organisms as " unlucky/' 

 and usually tear them to pieces, and throw them into the water. 

 Senhor de Bocage has, however, succeeded in procuring several 

 specimens, and one of these he has sent to the British Museum. 

 This specimen I had an opportunity of examining, through the 

 kindness of Dr. Gray. Judging from it and from Senhor de 

 Bocage's figure, the " glass-rope " of the Portuguese form is 

 not so thick as that of H. Sieboldi. I think there is some 

 slight difference in the sculpture of the long needles, but I 

 have not had an opportunity of making a minute microscopic 

 examination of these. The thin (lower) end of the coil is 

 entirely covered by the investing zoophyte, which extends 

 uniformly over about two-fifths of the whole length. The 

 polyps are oval, they project but slightly from the general 

 surface, and are arranged regularly in spiral lines like the 

 scars on the stem of a tree-fern. According to Senhor de 

 Bocage, the granular appearance of the surface of the crust is 

 not produced, as in the Japanese species, by agglutinated 

 grains of sand, but by "an infinite number of club-shaped 

 spicules bristling with points ;" and, according to the same 

 authority, " each polyp is supported by a silicious framework 

 of filiform spicules, disposed longitudinally and at equal intervals 

 on the internal wall of the body cavity. - " This latter point of 

 structure is altogether peculiar, but in these and in other 

 details H. Lusitanicum stands in need of the minute and careful 

 study and illustration which it will doubtless receive from its 

 discoverer. 



Senhor de Bocage most accurately describes the mouth of 

 the polyp as surrounded by a crown of not less than sixty 

 minute, triangular, compressed tentacles, and justly suspects 

 that the supposed difference in the number of tentacles 

 between the Portuguese form and that described by Brandt 

 might arise from an error of observation, depending, possibly, 

 upon the bad condition of the specimens examined by the 

 Russian naturalist. Although dead and somewhat dried up, 

 in the specimens as procured by Senhor de Bocage the 

 zoophyte was still soft, it had a strong fishy smell, and ap- 

 peared to have been fresh when taken from the sea. No 

 sponge-body has as yet been found in connection with any of 

 the Portuguese specimens. 



With regard to the essential nature of the organism, 

 Senhor de Bocage leans to the view advocated by Gray and 

 Brandt. He believes that as recovered from the deep by the 

 Setubal fishermen it is homogeneous and complete. I have no 

 hesitation whatever in expressing a most decided opinion that 

 in this — as, indeed, in all such cases — the zoophyte is a para- 

 site investing a coil of spicules which formed originally an 



