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forming the frill round the base of the tube are found in the 
youngest and least developed specimens, but they are sometimes 
torn away by the dealers who send over the specimens, or 
perhaps destroyed in preparing them for the market. 
The history of the described specimens shows how gradually 
the real structure of a rare object becomes known. 
The specimen described by MM. Quoy and Graimard only 
consisted of the tube without any base or terminal fringe. 
Mr. Cuming’s specimen, described and figured by Professor 
Owen, was an adult specimen, with the dilated base, the netted 
lid, the fringe round the edge of the tube near the lid, the 
external ridges and finely netted outer coat that strengthens the 
tube, but it was destitute, or nearly so, of the free filaments 
that arise from the roots and surround the lower half of the 
tube like a large beard. 
Dr. Farre’s specimen, also described by Professor Owen, has 
the free filaments at the base well developed and preserved, and 
the cavity of the sponge is covered with a well-developed lid. 
But this specimen is not perfectly grown ; the fringe round 
the edge of the tube near the lid, and the outer netted coat 
and the transverse ridges on the outer surface of the tube are 
not developed. 
It is probable that all these differences only depend on age 
and the state of the specimen. But Professor Owen regarded 
Mr. Cuming’s specimen as distinct from those of MM. Quoy and 
G-aimard, because it had a fringe and netted lid ; and Dr. 
Farre’s as distinct from Mr. Cuming’s, because it was destitute 
of the fringe round the upper part and the ridges on the outer 
surface of the tube. 
The lightness, elegance, and rigidity of the tube, give the 
idea of a beautiful and complicated piece of lace work that has 
been suddenly petrified into a hard and transparent stone. 
The interlacing of the fibres of which the tube is composed has 
the same appearance as canework of the very different trans- 
verse and angular directions of the fibres leaving a round mesh. 
Professor Owen well observes to the question put by almost 
every one to whom the Euplectella is shown, as to how the 
threads could have been so regularly yet intricately interwoven : 
“ I have sometimes replied that there has been no such thing 
as interweaving in the case ; that no thread as such was ever 
laid across another in the construction of the Euplectella ; that 
the analogy of human textile fabrics does not apply to this beauti- 
ful natural object. In artificial network the several stages of a 
complex result must be taken in the succession indicated by 
painful aod equal calculation ; in organic lacework different 
stages are done at once ; thus it is the Divine work surpasses 
that of man’s utmost ingenuity. The threads of the Euplectella 
