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Show 530 DR. J. E. GRAY ON SPONGES. [May 9, B. Tube formed of fascicules of filiform spicules placed in various directions, forming an irregular network like the lid of the tube, and not strengthened with any raised transverse or oblique ridges or fringe at the edge of the aperture, aud without any free barbed filament at the base. 2. CORBITELLA. The tube clavate, rather irregular, rounded at the end, formed of slender fascicules of open elongate filiform spicules, placed in longitudinal, transverse, and oblique directions, forming an irregular network. Alcyoncellum, Quoy & Gaim. (not D e Blainville). Euplectella, sp., Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H . 1866. This genus chiefly differs from Euplectella in the want of the well-marked longitudinal and transverse bundles of spicules, which are to be observed in all the specimens of different ages of E. aspergillum that have come under m y observation. CORBITELLA SPECIOSA. (Pl. XXVIII. fig. 1.) Alcyoncellum speciosum, Quoy & Gaim. Voy. Astrol. p. 302, Zoophytes, t. 26. f. 3, 1833 (very bad); Lamk. An. s. Vert. ed. 2, ii. p. 589 ; Bowerb. B. S. f. 185, 187, 188, 195 ? Hab. Molucca (M. Merkus; Mus. Paris). Quoy and Gaimard thus describe the only specimen of this sponge yet known in Europe:-" Cette singuliere production re-presente un cylindre creux, de sept a huit pouces d'etendue, en forme de Phallus, arrondi et un peu dilate a une extremite, ouvert a, l'autre, a parois mince, formee de filets tres defies, lachement accole's les uns aux autres, entrecroises dans tous les sens, de maniere a former de nombreuses mailles arrondies, presque regulieres comme celles de la dentelle ou bien des sieges tisses en rotang."-Zoophytes, ii. p. 303. Professor Wyville Thompson has most kindly sent me a photograph of this specimen, which is here copied (Pl. XXVIII. fig. 1), and which shows that it is quite distinct from the Philippine Sponge. M M . Quoy and Gaimard's figure is very imperfect, and probably misled Prof. Owen; for he observes, when describing Euplectella aspergillum, that " If the basal aperture of the cone were open, the resemblance to some of the known Alcyonoid sponges would be very close, especially to that called Alcyonellum gelatinosum by M. De Blainville (Alcyonellum speciosum, Quoy & Gaim.); its closure by the reticulate convex frilled cap in the present instance establishes the generic distinction."-Trans. Zool. Soc. iii. p. 205. But the specimen figured by M M . Quoy and Gaimard has a "reticulate convex cap." And this is not the only mistake in this paragraph ; the "basal aperture" is the apex of the sponge. Alcyonellum gelatinosum (which should be Alcyoncellum gelatinosum Blainville) has no affinity to Alcyoncellum speciosum of Quoy and |