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Show 1 18 DR. J. E. GRAY ON HYALONEMA LUSITANICUM. [Jan. 24, me that the coral from Japan and that from Portugal should be separated from each other as genera, having a different number of tentacles, and that they must live under very different circumstances. The differences have been pointed out by Professor Bocage in his papers on the Portuguese Coral in the Society's ** Proceedings.' The genera may be thus defined :- 1. HYALONEMA, Gray, and Brandt? Hyalocheeta, Brandt. Polypes with twenty tentacles in two series. The axis bare at the base, living sunk in the centre of a sponge, and separated from the sponge by a hard condensed coat. The bark strengthened externally with siliceous granules or sand. All the perfect specimens which I have seen of this coral were attached to sponges; they are about twelve in number; and there are three figured by Brandt, and one by Schultze; so there can be no doubt that it is the natural habit of the coral. This seems to be the case with all the specimens that have been collected by naturalists. The Japanese seem to destroy the bark, and separate the corals from the sponges, as they appear to consider the bundle of spicula the most interesting part of the coral; so that most of the specimens that are brought to this country either have only a small part of the bark attached to them, just enough to keep the spicula together, or are entirely stripped of it. HYALONEMA SIEBOLDII. Hyalonema sieboldii, Gray, P. Z. S. ii. (1835) p. 65 ; 1857, p. 279; Institute, 1835, p. 426 ; Ann. & Mag. N . H. 1850, vi. p. 306 ; 1866, xviii. p. 295 ; Perty, Allg. Naturg. iii. 1841, p. 796; Brandt, Bull. Scien. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. n. s. xvi. 1857 ; Me'lang. Biol. ii. 606 ; Symbolae, 14, t. 1. f. 1-10; Milne-Edwards, Coralliaires, i. 1857, p. 324 ; M a x Schultze, Die Hyalonemen, 1860, t. 1. 2; Bowerbank, Brit. Sponges, i. 196. Hyalonema mirabilis, Gray, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 279. Var.? Hyalonema affinis, Brandt, Symbolae, 16, t. 2. f. 2 a, 2 b, 3 & 4. Hab. Japan. Professor Brandt has divided the Hyalonema from the Japanese seas into two genera, viz. Hyalonema and Hyalocheeta, according to the prominence and clustering of the polypes. I have not seen any specimens which agree with Professor Brandt's Hyalocheeta possieti, Bull. Sci. Acad. St. Petersb. xvi. 1857; Me'lan. Biolog. ii. 606; Symbolae, 17, t. 2. f. 6-10. In the British Museum there is a specimen, which was brought from Japan by Dr. W . Lockhart, that has some of the polypes clustered and more produced than the others. It is almost intermediate in form between the common state of Hyalonema sieboldii and the figure of Hyalocheeta jiossieti given by Professor Brandt. |