Nature and Art, March 1, 1867.] 
VENUS'S FLOWER-BASKET.” 
89 
and ledge, waving their thousand fringes and 
gorgeously-shaded tentacles in the deep blue water; 
whilst fish vying with the rainbow in their radiance 
of tint and banded beauty, flit bird-like in restless 
play amongst the ocean leaves and blossoms. Many 
of the shells and molluscs are so perfect and 
exquisitely beautiful, that from the very infancy of 
art they have remained the favourite aud unsur- 
passed designs from which the greatest triumphs 
of ornamental work have been executed. The 
wandering explorer and naturalist, who gleans his 
harvest amongst the reefs, coral sands, and lagunes 
of far-off islands and little-frequented coasts, like 
the plant-hunter, who seeks his prizes in the vast ’ 
forests of distant lands, from time to time lights 
on some new and unknown marvel of nature’s handi- 
work wherewith .to delight not only the scientific 
world, but even those least susceptible to the charms 
of nature. Such are the subjects of our illustration, 
which, being the result of photography, faithfully 
show the form and structural arrangement of these 
exquisite sponges (for sponges they are), although 
the clear crystalline transparency of the lace-like 
network of which they are built up, as though spun 
by fairy craft, is such as to defy the efforts of art to 
represent. Cornucopia-like in form, crowned with a 
cover of elegant design, they have been appropriately 
named Venus's Flower -baskets, or the Euplectella spe- 
ciosce of the naturalists. This beautiful production 
is a native of the warm and genial seas washing the 
shores of the island of Zebu, one of the Philippine 
group, where it was first discovered and brought to 
light by fishermen, about a year since, and is said 
to inhabit very deep water, forty fathoms or there- 
abouts, where these sponges fix themselves to the 
sand, or other suitable point of attachment. All 
the specimens which we have seen appear to have 
grown on a deposit of coral and shell-sand, and 
have small shells entangled amongst' the mass of 
fibres at the bottom of the sponge. That they at 
times attach themselves to other substances, there 
can be no doubt, as Mr. Wright, of 90, Great Russell 
Street, to whose courtesy we are indebted for the 
subjects of the illustration, states that there is now 
in Germany a piece of timber brought from the island 
of Zebu, on which are ten specimens, — a. rich haul 
for the fortunate fisherman who discovered it. 
The first specimen obtained by Mr. Cumming 
(now in the British Museum) was both bought and 
sold by him for <£30 ; others have been purchased 
at from £10 to £15 ; whilst of late, from fresh 
discoveries having been made, they have become 
comparatively cheaper ; but are still costly enough 
to render a successful search for them highly re- 
munerative. Some specimens we have seen have 
a portion of the sponge, of a brownish colour, still 
adhering to them : those in the illustration are the 
crystal frames only. 
No doubt the careful search which will be 
set on foot by the inhabitants of the coast, 
when their value in the market is known, will go 
far to clear up some of the mysteries now hanging- 
round their growth and formation. One of these 
is the almost invariable presence of the remains of 
one or more crabs in the interior of this, to them, 
“ crystal prison,” out of which escape is just as im- 
possible as from a capsuled bottle. Many differences 
of opinion exist as to the mode by which the crabs 
first obtained an entrance. There appears, how- 
ever, little doubt that this is effected whilst the 
sponge is in an immature condition, and before the 
cover is woven. There is a young specimen which 
we have examined in the British Museum in this 
incomplete state, and it is questionable whether the 
basket-like tube is ever covered until it has reached 
maturity, when, although the sponge appears to 
cease growing in an upward direction, the power 
possessed by it to secrete the silicious matter of 
which the network is composed, remains unim- 
paired ; and, like a skilful artisan as he is, he at 
once repairs neatly such injuries as his crystal palace 
may. sustain. 
Dr. Gray has in his possession a specimen in 
which a repair of this kind has been effected. A 
hole appears to have been broken by some acci- 
dent in one of the sides, about halfway between 
the point of attachment and the crown. A new 
network of fibres, in bunches, has been substituted 
for the broken ones, of form much like the original 
structure. 
The peculiar curved or cornucopia- like shape 
usually, although not invariably, assumed by these 
baskets, has also given rise to much speculation 
amoDgsttlie scientific. Dr. Gray is of opinion that 
the weight of the crab, when crawling through the 
interior of the tube, may influence the direction in 
which the basket is found to incline. He says : 
“ As the crab becomes imprisoned in the cavity, it 
will be constantly walking up and down the tube 
to procure food, and by so doing it will most likely 
bend the tube on one side ; so that the free end of 
the tube may become bent down nearly to the level 
of the base.” Whether is this the true solution of 
the enigma, or, like the goblet forms of some 
species and the rounded contour of others, may 
not the cornucopia form, after all, be that most 
common to E. speciosa ? 
It appears to be the prevailing opinion amongst 
the fishermen by whom the Euplectella is taken, 
and by whom it is known as the Rigederos, “ that 
it is the work of two insects (meaning probably 
the crabs found in the tubes) at the bottom of the 
sea;” and a French correspondent, in writing 
recently to the authorities of the British Museum, 
expresses his opinion that the Euplectella is the 
work of the crabs. 
There are many reasons why this opinion 
should be received with the greatest caution. 
In the first place, we know of no crustacean 
possessing a like power of silicious secretion and 
construction. Then the crabs which are found in- 
closed are not always of the same species, or even 
genera. Dr. Gray is of opinion that one which he 
examined through the meshes was a Pagurus, of 
which the hermit, or soldier-crabs, so frequently 
found in whelk and other univalve shells on our 
own coasts, are examples. 
On many of the coasts of the tropical seas, crabs 
