550 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 
years previously in tlie Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 
London for 1864 (page 265, Plate XXII.) ; and, although the 
discovery seemed, at the time, extremely well authenticated, yet it 
appeared so strange that a form up to then only found in the Japanese 
seas should occur on the coast of Europe, that there were not want- 
ing some who thought the specimens might have made their way in 
some form or another to Portugal from Japan. 
In Xovember, 1865, Professor Bocage, in recording the occurrence 
of two fresh specimens taken off Setuhal, writes : — Maintenant j'es- 
pere que la nouvelle espece de Hyalonema restera definitivement 
acquise a la fauna du Portugal." 
Dr. E. J. Grray, having examined the form from Portugal, was 
satisfied that it and the one from Japan should be placed in different 
genera, and retaining the genus Hyalonema for the Japanese speci- 
mens, he proposed that of Hyalothrix for the Portuguese one. The 
^' glass rope" he still regarded as portion of the axis belonging to 
as well as supporting the crown of Parasitic Polyps, believing that 
the basal sponge portion (Carteria) was a separate and distinct form. 
Dr. Bowerbank (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 
1867, p. 18) gave a very detailed history of mirabile, accom- 
panying it with several references to S. lusitanica, which he thought 
probable would prove to be one and the same species. He also states as his 
mature conviction, that the Polyps were but oscula of the great Cloacal 
organ (the glass rope stem), and expresses his belief that the whole of 
the structures present in the more perfect specimens of Hyalonema 
were parts of one and the same animal. 
There were thus in the Spring of 1867 two very interesting ques- 
tions to be decided as to the Portuguese species of the genus Hyalo- 
nema. Under what conditions was it found in situ, for Professor 
Bocage had been unable to investigate this matter himself; and, 
secondly, the question to be answered by the same practical in- 
vestigation that would answer the first queries as to the parasitism of 
the Polyps, the so-called oscula of Bowerbank. Of both of these 
I took a note, with some faint hope that I might come across some 
species of the genus in the seas around the Seychelles. A want of 
energy for dredging work in my African boatmen, and a want of suffi- 
cient rope, prevented me from dredging, however, at any great depth 
in these tropical regions, and no trace of Hyalonema was met with in the 
comparatively moderate depths in which I dredged. On my return 
home in January, 1868, my attention was once again called to the subject, 
by receiving from my friend, Professor Loven, of Stockholm, a copy of 
his Paper: — Om en marklig i Nordsjon lefvande art af Spongia." 
(Efversigt af K. Yetenskaps Akademiens Fcirhandlingar, Arg. 25, in 
which, describing a little stalked siliceous sponge. Professor Loven 
shows that the opinion of all previous writers, as to the relative 
position of the large sponge mass, and glass rope, in Hyalonema, 
must be erroneous, and states his belief that when Hyalonema is dredged 
in a living state, it will be found with its coil immersed in the 
