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A
HISTORY
OF
BRITISH SPONGES AND
LITHOPHYTES
BY
GEORGE JOHNSTON, M.D., Edin.
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Extraordinary Member of the Royal Medical,
aiid Corresponding Member of the Medico-Chirurgical Societies of Edinburgh; Cor-
"responding Member of the Zoological Society of London ; Honorary Member of the
Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, of the Dublin Natural History Society, of the
Natural History Society of Newcastlc-r.pon-Tyne, of the Devon and Cornwall Natu-
ral History Society, of the Literaiy and [Philosophical Society of St Andrews, and of
the Tweedside Physical Society.
W. H. LIZARS, EDINBURGH :
S. IIIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET, LONDON ; AND
W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN.
MDCCCXLII.
ValNTHD By JOHN STARK, EDINBURGH.
m
^
A
■^
is.
O <-J *-^* -^
TO
CATHARINE JOHNSTON
THIS VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY HER HUSBAND
THE AUTHOR.
— Xo/fl-ov Ti^i Trig ^w/'x^g (puSiwg slm/v, /o-rj^b 'Tra^uXicrovras iig ^v-
vufiiv /Ji,r;Ti ariiMOTi^ov [irin rif/jiuiTc^ov. xai ya§ .Iv ToTg firi -/tsy^a^iff-
[Mivoig ahrojv cr^hg rr^v aiffSriSiv Kara rriv diu^ixv ofjbug ri drjfkiov^yrjffa-
6a j 'rra^aXoyov xal ci-ro'Trov,
ii rag (ikv s/xovag avruv &io)^oZvrig yjfJ^^oiMiv on rriv B^/Ji^iov^yriffaaati
riyvYiv ffwhco^o\j/ji,sv, o'lov rr\v y^a(piXYi\i ri rr^v Txacr/zjji', ahrwv hi ruiv
(pvdm cuviGruroiv ilyi /jmWov a.ya-TTijjiMv rrjv 6iupav, hwawivot yi rag
airiag Kado^dv. bih hi7 imyj hvcyi^aivitv 'zaihixug rriv 'jn^i rcijv ari-
/Mors^ojv Z^umv i'jr'Ksy-i'^iv. l\ 'xa.di yao roTg 'T^odiBvat hiT ii'}\ h-jsoi~(>\jijjiwv ijg sv d'Traffiv 'Ivrog rivdg ^^>!^
Holy Island Coves.
" I loved to walk where none had walk'd before,
About the rocks that ran along the shore -.
Here had I favourite stations where I stood,
And heard the murmurs of the ocean-flood."
Crahhe,
" Quibus Spoiigiarum fertile^ Oceani tractus lustrare contigerit bene
multa invenient quae superaddant et magnum in scientia natural! explebit
hiatum, qui plenam Spongiarum historiam dabit, gnaris gratissimam
eerte futuram atque utilissimis observationibus feracissimam." — Pallas.
" he genre des Eponges est tres riche en especes curieuses, et m^rite
d'etre etudie." — Cuvier.
" Les Eponges sont connues de tout le monde, sont employees de
toute ajitiquite aux usages domestiques ; et cependant, ont plus besoin
d'etre etudiees que la plupart des genres de Tordre oil elles se trouvent.''
— Bosc.
" Comprendo bene quanto la storia delle Spugrie sia interessante piu
che quella pi altro Polipo, e quanto ancora sia imperfetta." — Cavolini.
THE BRITISH SPONGES.
Every one may be presumed to be familiar with the ge-
neral appearance and structure of Sponge. It is a light
elastic porous substance formed of interlaced horny fibres,
producing, by their numerous inosculations, a rude sort of
net-work with meshes or j)ores of unequal sizes and usually
of a square or roundish angulated figure. Besides these
pores there are some circular holes of a larger size (osculd)
scattered over the surface of most sponges, and which lead
into sinuous canals that permeate their interior in every
direction. The oscula, canals and pores communicate free-
ly together, for the structm-e of the sponge is alike through-
out the mass, or at most the texture of the surface is mere-
ly a little more compact than the inner parts. The charac-
teristic property of sponge is the facility with which it im-
bibes a large quantity of any fluid, more especially of water,
which is retained amid the meshes until forced out again by
a sufficient degree of compression, when the specimen re-
6 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
turns elastic to its former bulk. From this peculiarity,
combined with its pleasant softness, arises the value of
sponge ; and for the purposes to which it is applied, in do-
mestic economy, and in surgical practice, we are not aware
that any other production can be conveniently substituted.
When the sponge is recent and living its canals and
pores are filled with a glairy colourless fluid like the white
of an egg, wMch flows freely out on the removal of the
sponge from the water. The quantity of tliis fluid varies
according to the species. In some it is copioiis even to
nauseousness ; but in the compact Halichondriae there is lit-
tle of it, and in the Grantiae it appears to be entirely want-
ing. It " has an unctuous feel, emits a fishy odour when
biuTit, leaves a thin film or membrane when evaporated,
and appears to the naked eye transparent, colourless, and
homogeneous, like the colourless part of an egg. But,
when a drop of it is examined on a plate of glass under the
microscope, it appears entirely composed of very minute,
transparent, spherical or ovate granules, like monades, with
some moisture. These monade-like bodies, nearly all of
the same size and form, resemble the pellucid granules or
vesicles, which Trembley has represented as composing the
whole texture of the Hydrae, or the soft granular matter
we observe in the stems of living Sertularise ; and, indeed,
most of the fleshy parts of organized bodies appear to be
composed of similar pellucid granular or monade-like bo-
dies in different states of aggregation."* — The chemical
properties of this fluid have not been ascertained : its sensi-
ble qualities, if we assume that the smell of the sponge flows
from it, are not altogether the same throughout the class,
* Grant in Edin. New Phil. Journ. ii. p. 124.
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 7
for, as Professor Grant has remarked, " the odours of some
sponges are decidedly animal, while others belong to com-
mon and well-known vegetables. The Spongia coalita,
when newly taken from the water, smells very strongly of
the common mussel, and Avhen burnt, it still resembles the
same bivalve burnt ; the Spongia compressa, on the other
hand, smells strongly of the common mushroom ; some, as
the Spongia oculata, have scarcely a perceptible odom\" *
The composition of the skeleton or fibrous portion of the
sponge is remarkably diversified, but in this sketch I limit
myself to a notice of the variations exhibited in our typical
native species. In the true sponges (^Sj)ongia) the fibres
which bound the intercellular spaces are horny smooth
subcylindrical threads, of unequal tliickness, and, accord-
ing to Ellis and Grant, tubular throughout, so that the con-
tinuity of the canal is uninterrupted even at the junctions
or anastomoses of the net-work ;t but Dujardin and Mr
Bowerbank have proved that this is an erroneous descrip-
tion of the structure, for the thi-ead is in fact solid and im-
perforate.| (Fig. 3.) The fibres of other sponges {Hali-
chondria) are formed of slender crystalline spicula compos-
ed of silex or flint in a pure state, laid in a not over-exact
parallelism, and bound together by a substance analogous
to horn or albumen ; but there are many species of Hali-
chondria in which this albuminous matter is diffiised, so
that the fibrous structure has become obscure, and the spi-
cula, now predominant, lie crossed in every direction and
* Edin. Phil. Jourri. xiii. p. 96.
f Ellis and Soland. Zooph. p. 184 : Grant in Edin. Phil. Journ. xiv
p. 340.
\ Microscopic Journal, i. p. 10, Annals Nat. Hist. vii. p 73.
8 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
comparatively free. These sponges have been compared to
the crumb of bread, and the comparison conveys a very
Fig.X
exact idea of their structm*e as seen with the naked eye.
In a third class of sponges ( Grantia) there is no net-work,
their basis being a porous membrane rendered compact
and firm by the profusion of spicula immersed in it, and
these consist solely of carbonate of lime. The siliceous
spicula form mostly needle-like spines, but there are found
along with them, in the genus Tethya, some that might
have been the model from wliich mythological painters
have drawn the trident they have placed in the hands of
Neptune. (Fig. 4.) The calcareous spicula are more va-
riously shaped, — either simple and acicular, or clavate, or
formed with three or even, sometimes, with four prongs.
(Fig. 5.) The two kinds, viz. the calcareous and sili-
ceous, have not hitherto been detected coexistent in any
native sponge ; but the spicula of every species are very
constant to the same figure, although in point of size they
vary exceedingly, nor have I been able to discover anv
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 9
certain order in their arrangement. They are proba-
bly hollow in the centre and closed at both ends. " When
the spicula are examined through the microscope after this
Fig. 4. Fig. 5.
cxposm'e to heat, we distinctly perceive," says Dr Grant,
" a shut cavity^ within them, extending from the one point
to the other ; and on the inflated part of each spiculum we
observe a ragged opening, as if a portion had been driven
out by the expansion of some contained fluid. In those
spicula which had suffered little change of form by their in-
candescence, I have never failed to observe the same cavity
within, extending from one end to the other, and a distinct
open rent on their side, by wliich the contained matter has
escaped before the usual globular distension had taken
place."* The sponges containing spicula, in any degree of
profusion, are inapplicable to domestic purposes.
Sponges are all aquatic productions. " In their natural
state they are soft and elastic, and possess lively colours ;
but many of the species, by di-ying, become quite friable,
lose their fine shades of colour, and become white. Soon
• Edin. Phil. Journ. xiv. p. 184 — According to Mr Bovverbank, the
spicula have a central cavity " lined with an aninnal membrane, which
becomes converted into a thin film of carbon when the spicula are ex-
posed to the action of the blow-pipe " — Ann. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 74.
10 THE BRITrSH SPONGES.
after death, they pass througli a bluish colour to black, by
putrefaction. The whole body of a sponge is specifically
heavier than sea-water ; and each of its parts taken sepa-
rately sinks in that element."* A very few of a green co-
lovu' inhabit our ponds and sluggish rivers ; the rest are
marine. Of these many of the calcareous and siliceous
kinds inhabit the shores between tide-marks, preferring a
site near the low ebb, where, nevertheless, they are daily
alternately submerged and left exposed to the atmosphere.
The figured sponges with a fibrous texture, to M^hatever
genus they belong, and the fleshy Tethya, are the denizens
of deeper water, and are never left uncovered. They
grow, usually in groups, on rocks, shells, shell-fish, coral-
lines and sea-weeds, and either have no power of selection,
or the quality of the site is indifferent to them. When, how-
ever, from the locality, they are exposed to a greater than
usual agitation of the sea, it is said that the structure of
the sponge becomes denser and more compact than in its
normal condition of developement.
In their growth some sponges assume a determinate
figure, or at least one whose variations are confined within
certain limits that do not render the form nugatory as a
specific character; but the greater number are very ir-
regular and variable, their shape depending, in a great
measure, on the peculiarities of their site, to which they
easily accommodate themselves. Thus they will incrust
a shell or a crab, a rock or sea-weed, following every pro-
tuberance and sinuosity ; and the offshoots will spring up,
with a more luxuriant growth, in the deeper sheltered
places, until they render the original shape of the thing they
* Editi. Phil. Journ. xiii. p- 96.
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 11
grow upon irrecognizable. Even of the more figured spe-
cies, when the branches of the same individuals, or of two
individuals of the same kind, come into accidental contact,
they speedily coalesce, and the union is so natural and
perfect that no difference of structure — not even an ideal
line — indicates the original place of meeting, while the
altered form may occasionally perplex the nomenclator :
" Nam mista duorum
Corpora junguntur, faciesque inducitur illis
Una. Velut si quis conducta cortice ramos
Crescendo jungi, pariterque adoleseere cernat.
Sic ubi complexu coierunt membra tenaci,
Nee duo sunt, et forma duplex, nee fsemina dici.
Nee ptier ut possint ; neutrumque, et utrumque videntur."*
But this intimate union is only between individuals of the
same species, for " different species of sponge do not imite
together when they come into contact : they form a slight
adhesion, but the line of separation is easily traced, and
they can be disunited without laceration, AVhen the
Spongia tomentosa meets the Spongia papillaris, the mar-
gins of both adhere together, rise a little from the rock,
and proceed directly outward, as if endeavouring to sur-
mount each other, till their contest is arrested by the ac-
tion of the waves, which would soon tear off the unsup-
ported margins, if they proceeded outward to any consider-
able extent." f I have seen these facts strikingly illustrat-
ed with Halichondria tomentosa and H. sanguinea, which
grew intermingled in such a manner that they had formed
a specimen resembling the map of a county where every
riding was coloured or white or red, and where the boun-
* Ond. Metam. lib. iv. ix. 1. .373-9.
t Edin. Phil. Journ. xiv. p. 115.
12 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
daries were too distinctly draAvn to admit of any debateable
acres on either side.
Sponges are inimoving and unirri table : hence they ever
remain rooted to the places of their germination, and are
incapable either of contracting or dilating themselves, or
even of moAang any fibre or portion of their mass. They
jiossess no polypous tenantry, — their osculi and pores are
unfm-nished with tentacula, — and their interior is equally
A acant of the simplest viscera which are found adumbrat-
ed at least in all other animated entities. Of such unform-
ed and insensate productions we naturally presume that the
functions which distingaiish them as living beings must
be few and faintly imaged ; and notwithstanding the at-
tention paid of late to the subject, we find that considerable
obscurity hangs over their physiology.
It has been already shown that the sm^face of the sponge
is everywhere porous, and that its interior is permeated
with irregular sinuous canals which open externally by ori-
fices much larger than the pores. The common belief had
been that the sponge had the power of sucking in the cir-
cumfluent water through these larger orifices, and of throw-
ing it out again from the same orifices, after some detention
of it in the canals and meshes. The current was an inter-
mittent one with an alternate ebb and flow.* — Of late the
prevalent theory has been that the water is insensibly ab-
sorbed by the pores and enters the interior net-work, pene-
trating to every point and carrying -with it nutriment and
air : thence it is forced into the canals, along wliich it rmis in
a continuous stream that finds its issue' from the body at the
larger orifices or oscrda. (Fig. 6.) By this eflluent stream
* " Spongia — foraminibu? rcspirat nquam." — Lin. Syst Nat. p. 1296.
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 13
we are told that all excremental matters are carried out, —
every thing to wit which has become effete, or which has been
Fig. 6.
rubbed down by exposure to its force. The direction of the
cmTents is said to be invariably the same ; and a sortof ara-
neous web is described as being spread within the oscula,
calculated to prevent the ingress through them of any fo-
reign bodies floating about, wliich might otherwise disturb
the functions of the sponge by blocking up these conduits
and vents. There are, however, many sponges which are
entirely destitute of oscula, and whose surface is equally
and miiformly porous ; and the pores of these, we are com-
pelled to believe, may be, at different periods, and under va-
rying circumstances, either suctorial or vomitive. Dr Grant
describes the influx and efflux of the water as constituting
an uninterrupted stream, flowing as long as the sponge con-
tinues to be submerged and in health ; and, according to
the same authority, it is ofttimes strong enough to be dis-
tinguishable with the naked eye, — especially if any light
powder is strewn over the siu-face of the water to guide the
eye to its coiu-se and origin.
This physiology of the sponge we owe to Professor
Grant. The theory is so consistent with the structure and
low organization of the object, and is deduced from such
an extensive series of w^ell-told experiments, that it made
14 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
its way unquestioned among naturalists in general, and
was admitted unhesitatingly into elementary works of the
highest character ; * but it should be remarked, that the
authors of them added no other confirmation of it than what
we may allow is due to the fact of the impression of its
truth made on the minds of able and judicious men, by
the many proofs of it which Dr Grant had adduced. The
testimony of Dutrochet, and of Audouin and Milne-Ed-
wards to his accuracy is more valuable, for the former of
these eminent naturalists verified the existence of the cir-
culation through the River Sponge ; and the latter had
seen the phenomena on which the theory rests in the
sponges of the shores of France, f And although I am
well aware of the doubts which have been recently raised
on the subject, from the experiments made on the River
Sponge by Mr John Hogg, | — experhnents which I shall
afterwards mention in detail, — yet I cannot share in those
doubts, for even as this sheet passes through the press, I
and my family have had the pleasure of observing the cir-
culation distinctly in the Halichondria papillaris, Flem. ;
and it is with unfeigned satisfaction that I find myself in a
position to bear witness to the minute accuracy of Dr
Grant's description of the phenomena accompanying it
The current issues from the oscula in a continuous stream,
which is agitated like boiling water ; and minute granules
• See Fleming's Brit. Animals, p. 519. Roget's Bridgewater Trea-
tise, i. p. 151-4. Grant's Outlines of Comp. Anatomy, p. 8. Milne-
Edwards in the 2d edition of Lamarck's Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. 535.
Stark's Elem. of Nat. History, ii. p. 424. Mantell's Wonders of Geo-
logy, p. 458. Sharpey in Cyclop. Anat. and Physiology, i. p. 612. Gray
in Synopsis of British Museum, p. 57.
f Hist. Nat. du Litt. de la France, i. p. 76.
\ Liniiean Transactions, xviii. p. 390, and p. 402.
4
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 15
are seen to be carried out from the sponge in the current
at short and irregular intervals. It is impossible to witness
the scene without being at once satisfied that it must flow
from some cause connected with the vitality of the sponge
itself; nor does it seem possible that a circulation so uni-
form in its course, and continuous and turbulent, can be
maintained by the breathing of any insect, worm or mol-
lusk fortuitously nestling in the sponge, and which, more-
over, were in vain sought for.
By this circulation, sponges operate the usual changes
of organized beings on the water around and within them,
for they soon die unless this is often renewed ; and they
render it equally unfit for the support of other life. On
what power the circulation depends is unascertained. That
it cannot be ascribed to any contraction or irritability in
the sponge, or in its pores and canals, is very certain ; but
other two explanations of it have been oftered. Dr Grant
considers it to be very probable that the pores and canals are
lined with minute vibratile cilia, by whose well ordered and
regulated play the cm'rent is originated and maintained ;
but he admits that he had not been able to perceive the
cilia after the most careful search for them, and after he
had become familiar with the best modes of detecting their
presence with the microscope. Dutrochet, on the contrary,
considers the phenomena as coming under his law of endos-
mosis and exosmcmx ; * and to this supposition I am well
• To tliose of my readers wlio are not familiar with Dutrocliet's
tbeory, the following illustrations of it may be necessary. " When the
ccpcum of a chicken was half-filled with milk, tied, and then immersed in
rain-water, he found that it became gradually fuller and fuller, and at
length very turgid, having, in 30 hours, increased in weight from 196
to 313 grains. When a denser tiuid was substituted fur the milk, such
16 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
disposed to assent. It is, indeed, evident that, from the
unequal densities of the mucilaginous secretion of the
sponge and the circumfluent water, there must be unceas-
ingly going on an oozing out of the one, and an entrance
inwards of the other, in obedience to the law in ques-
tion, which Dutrochet discovered to regulate the trans-
mission of fluids through all organic membranes. By this
singular process of reciprocal exchange we account proba-
bly enough for the exhalation of the excretions of the
sponges, and for the admittance of the circumfluent water ;
nor is more necessary for their sustenance and growth,
since, like plants, they appear to live solely on water and
its mineral ingredients. This liquid food is not received
into any cavity, but permeates to all points, and is equally
elaborated in every part of the system, which, in one sense,
is an unconfined digestive cavity, where the various ingre-
dients are separated, selected, and fitted for appropriation
by each species agreeably to its nature. For example, it
as albumen or solution of gum, the weight and turgescence were still
more increased, and their increase was more rapidly completed ; in eight
hours and a half, a caecum partially filled, and weighing 58 grains, be-
came extremely turgid, and weighed 130 grains. This transmission of
the water by inward impulse or Endosmose, exists to a certain, but much
inferior degree, when the caecum is empty. It occurs always when the
internalfiuid is more dense than the external." " When, on the contrary,
the caecum was filled with rain-water, and immersed in any of the above-
mentioned active fluids, such as milk or albumen, the water passed out-
wards through the membrane. In like manner, a weak solution of gum-
arabic passed outwardly towards a stronger solution. The last-mention-
ed facts are examples of Exosmose or impulse outwards But the phe-
nomena of Endosmose and Exosmose are always concurrent or recipro-
cal ; that is, in each of the examples hitherto given, the external fluid
passes inwards, while the internal fluid passes outwards." See an excel-
lent review of Dutrochet's Discoveries in Physiology, in Edin. Med. and
Surg. Journal, xxxi. p. .38.3.
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 17
is very common to find growing on the same rock or sea-
weed, a siliceous, a calcareous, and a horny sponge ; they
have all the same exposure, and are all recipients of the
same nutriment, yet does each act upon this differently.
One extracts from the fluid silica, which it causes to as-
sume a solid crystalline form ; another selects in the same
manner the calcareous particles, which, obedient to the
laws of life, assume figures novel to them in their mineral
state ; and again, another rejects both the lime and flint as
injurious to its constitution.
The propagation of sponges is another disputed part of
their economy. That they are not born of love is very cer-
tain, for no one, since Pliny's time, has ever imagined that
there was any sexual difference in the individuals of any
species. The fresh-water sponge produces abundantly,
when in favourable situations, oviform bodies or capsules
filled with germinal grains. On the bursting of the cap-
sules, these are set free, and by a locomotion, probably de-
pendant on extrinsic causes, scatter themselves abroad, and
diflFiise the species. (Fig. 7). The capsules are, on the con-
Fig.1.
trary, unmoveable, and often germinate without bursting ;
while also many specimens of the sponge never produce
them, but propagate their kind by seminal granules alone,
which' appear to be merely detached particles of the orga-
18 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
nic mucus that fills the intercellular spaces. I have never
met with similar capsules in any marine sponge. * In the
Tethya, and in one or two Halichondrise, there are occa-
sionally found oviform bodies, lying apparently loose in the
Tethya, but so firmly attached to the fibres of the Hali-
chondrise, that they are not easily detached : they are large
enough to be visible with the naked eye, are of a roundish
or egg shape, and are composed of a gelatinous basis, in
which numerous spicula are immersed. Indeed, in struc-
ture they do not differ essentially fi'om the parent, and
seem to be young or embryo sponges developing them-
selves within the body, whence probably they escape when
this has died and decayed. They can scarcely be consi-
dered identical with the ova which Dr Grant discovered
that a few sponges produced in the spring season, for he
describes these as being more regularly egg-shaped, of a
yellow or orange colour, and covered with vibratile cilia, ex-
cepting on the narrow end, which is naked of them. These
ova in fact resemble very exactly the reproductive gem-
mules of the ascidian polypes ; and, when matiu'e, being de-
tached and carried from the parent mass by the effluent
currents and the movements of their own cilia, they float
and swim about in the sea until they have found a place
suitable for their growth and developement. But in
truth these ciliated ova and the oviform bodies are
found in so very few species, and so seldom even in
" Ehrenberg it seems has seen them " in very many sponges of the
Red Sea." Hogg in Lin. Trans- xviii. p. 40]. Mr Hogg has endeavour-
ed to show that long before Donati liad represented similar cajisules in a
Tethya in his Stor. Nat. dell' Adriatico, tab. viii. fig. C, c, i, and fig. E,
a, a ; and Muller in another sponge, evidently referable to the same ge-
nus, (Zool. Dan. tab. 157, fig. 1, 2, a,b.); but these bodies, vrhich I
have also seen, are not s^iniilar to the capsules of Spongilla.
J
THE BKITlijH SPONGES. 19
them, that they cannot be considered to be the ordinary
media of the propagation of sponges in general. Their very
position in the scale of organized beings, — vacillating be-
tween the lowest members of the two kingdoms, — forbids us
to believe that sponges could be oviparous ; and, consistent-
ly with this theoretical deduction, in by far the greater num-
ber which I have examined, there has been no appreciable
difference in the composition or texture of the species at
whatever season, or at whatever stage of its growth, the ex-
amination has been made. Thus I have been led to con-
clude that sponges are propagated by self-division, — by de-
taching at irregular intervals, and in the form of sporules,
scarcely regulated by seasons, small portions of their mass
or gelatine, which, carried abroad by tides and other influ-
ences, fall into favourable situations, and gradually there
develope, until they assume the form and texture of their
originals.*
Sponges inhabit every sea and shore. According to La-
mouroux they are very abundant and various between the
tropics, but become less so in temperate latitudes, and con-
tinue to diminish in number, in variety, and in size as we
trace them into European and colder seas, until they al-
most disappear in the vicinity of the polar circles. The
branched sponges with a compact feltred tissue are more
common than others in the seas of cold regions, where the
species of a loose textm-e, which grow in large massive
forms, either do not exist or are very rare. In this order of
distribution sponges agree with other zoophytes, and seem
' The fibre of a dried si)onge is frequently coated with a " rugous
film, containing minute granulations" Mr Bowerbank considers these
granulations to be the incipient gemmules of the sponge — Microsc.
Journ. i. p 9. I believe tbein to be the matured gemmules or sporules.
20 THE BRITISH SPONGES.
to be ruled by the same influences ; while they run coun-
ter, says Laniouroux, to sea-weeds which cover in profusion
the bottom of the icy seas of the two poles. * I know not
on what data the Professor of Caen has grounded these
general remarks. Of the numerous species arranged under
the genus Sponc/ia by Lamarck 5 1 are said to grow in the
Australasian seas or on the shores of New Holland, 22 in
the Indian Ocean, 4 only in the Red Sea, 9 in the Medi-
terranean, 14 on the American coast, and 9 in the seas of
Europe, t It is too obvious that no conclusions of the
slightest value can be drawn from these imperfect lists, and
the geography of the sponges must for long remain a field of
exploration and discovery, for before it will yield any fruit,
either to the naturalist or geologist, the species must be all
re-examined with a care not yet bestowed upon them, so
that they may be referred to their proper genera, and those
of every zone made to exliibit their mutual resemblances
and discrepancies.
What special uses sponges perform in the economy of
creation has been little enquired into. It would appear that
they are not made the food of any other tribe of animals ;
and the shelter wliich they give to some shell-fish, crabs,
and worms is accidental, or without any appropriated adap-
tation. There are a very few exceptions. Thus Mr Hogg
has discovered a very singular insect (Branchiotoma spon-
gillcB, Westwood,) which has not been detected in any
other situation than in the cells of the fresh-water sponge ; \
and some marine Cirripedes or acorn-shells, — the Acas-
t(e of Leach, — nestle habituallv in a sponge, — the nor-
• Polyp. Coral. Flex. p. 16.
f Anim. s. Vert. 2de edit. ii. p. 542—57.3.
f Lin. Trans, xviii. p. 390-1.
1
THE BRITISH SPONGES. 21
mal construction of the base of the shell being altered
to suit the peculiarities of its habitation. There is in this
instance a foreseen relation between two very dissimilar
creations. The habitat of Balanus spongeosus, says Co-
lonel Montagu, is extremely curious: " it is found enveloped
or bedded in a particular species of sponge, exposing no-
thing but the points of the operculum." — " Amongst the
reticulated fibres of this sponge the Balanus finds a secure
lodgement in its infant state, and is soon enclosed by the
growing fabric of the sponge animal, except a small open-
ing, which is kept clear by the vortex occasioned by the
constant motion of the feelers or tentacula of the Triton in-
habiting the shell.'"* — But these are too trivial offices for so
large and widely spread a family, and probably the power
which its members possess of reducing to a solid condition
the horn, the silex and lime of the waters they live in, is
what constitutes their importance amongst rival entities,
and gives them a certain influence over the phases of this
ever-changing globe, — an influence which we shall certain-
ly underrate unless there are taken into account their vast
numbers and universal difiiision, — their size in more ge-
nial seas, — and above all their unceasing operation on the
waters, continued from a2:e to age without one moment's
intermission. That they were called early into existence
we know from the remains of them found in nearly the
earliest of fossiliferous rocks ; and the same evidence as-
sures us that they have never been without an heritable suc-
cession.f Thus the number and variet)' of their species in-
Testacea Britannica, Supp. p. 3
t Sponges occur fossil in tlie tertiary, cretaceous, oolitic, perhaps in
the carboniferous, in the silurian, and probably in systems even older
than this. See Phillips' Treatise on Geology, i. p. 76.
22
THE BRITISH SPONGES.
crease in the newer oolitic group ; and they appear to
constitute the most abundant fossils of the cretaceous or
chalk formations. * " The upper part of the chalk through-
out a large portion of England," says Mr De La Beche,
" is characterized by the presence of numerous flints, more
or less arranged in parallel lines. "f These hard homogene-
ous flints, wliich are usually in the form of figs, pears, or
of nodulous masses, are, it may be conjectured, the indu-
rated remains of compact siliceous sponges ; as the silice-
ous grains and spicula mixed with the chalk itself appear
to come from their disintegi'ation or dissolution.
• De la Beche's Geological Manual, pp. 271, 297, 333, and 456.
t Geological Manual, p. 259.
Fig.^.
Branchiotoma SrOXGILL.^., Westw.
NATURE OF SPONGES. 23
11.
History of Opinions and Discoveries of the Nature
OF Sponges.
Sponge has been used, for domestic purposes, from a
very early period, but as an object of scientific inquiry, its
history begins with Aristotle ; and it appears not impro-
bable that his attention may have been drawn to a produc-
tion unlikely, from its amorphous condition and obscure
properties, to have otherwise attracted notice, by the ex-
tent and importance of its fisheries in the Mediterranean
and Red Sea,* " The sponge," says the Stagirite, " is a
* The name of sponge shows that it was early noticed for its peculiar
qualities. iTrayyo; or a-; and Edin. New Phil. Journ. iU
p. 128-1;54.
The minute description wiiicli Dr Grunt has given oi the structure oi'
54 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
The real character and relations of the fresh-water
sponges were likewise lirst made known to us by Dr
Grant, in a memoir read before the Wernerian Natui*al
History Society on February 11th 1826.* Great doubts
hung over them, as will appear from the opinions held by
those who had most carefolly examined the subject. Thus
IMontagu refused them a place in his essay, for it ap-
peared to liim " that tliis substance is in fact the nidus of
some aquatic insect, which may possibly congregate to de-
posit their eggs ; and that the fibres, or threads that de-
cussate each other, are attached to the ova for their secu-
rity in mass, as we perceive in those of some spiders and
other land insects. "f — Lamarck says that it had not been
determined whether these Spongillae were animal produc-
tions. The fact might be presiuned from their appearance
and from the gelatinous grains they contain ; but no obser-
vation made in France had confirmed a suggestion of Lich-
tenstein that these grains were the gemmules of the Cris-
tatellae. Assuming them to be animals, Lamarck believes
them to be much neai'er affined to the Cristatellae than to
the marine sponges, and therefore places them wide asmider
the oscula and of the ova, I must take the liberty of reminding the
reader, is taken from the examination of the oscula and ova of one or
two species only. It will be found that in general the oscula are mere-
ly simple or compound outlets, without any protective net over the ori-
fice or in the funnel ; and, indeed, it can rarely be seen excepting in new-
ly formed osciiles, before the fibres of the sponge have been broken
away by the effiuent current — The ova I have found only in Halichon-
dria panicea of Fleming, but as the specimen had been preserved in
spirits, I cannot vouch for their being ciliated, which, however, I do not
doubt. The accuracy of Dr Grant's description of them is, however,
questioned by Mr Owen. See " The Lancet," No. 871, p. 22.5.
* Edin. New Phil. .Touni. i. p. 178.
■j- Wern. Mem. ii. p. 77.
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 55
in liis system.* In liis first work Lamouroux erred less,
for he acknowledged the nigh relationship between the ma-
rine and the fresh-water sponges, wliich, indeed, he says
are chiefly distinguished by their residence. The latter
" resembles the marine Spongia by the gelatinous mucus
which surroimds the mass and fibres, and which disap-
pears on desiccation ; by the very fetid smell it ^delds
when bm'ning or decomposing, and also by the quantity of
lime extracted from its ashes, which even sometimes exceeds
half the weight of the dried polj'pidom." f Subsequent-
ly, however, Lamouroux became almost convinced that the
fresh-water sponges were plants. The smell, the colour,
the action of the air, of heat, of humidity and light, the to-
tal absence of the gelatinous fugacious crust of sponges,
represented only by an imctuous substance like that which
covers certain Charse, and the existence of opake seeds at
certain seasons of the year, whose nature is yet unknown,
— all these characters were remote from marine sponges,
and seemed to associate the fresh- water ones with the algae, f
The truth is, to borrow the remark of IMr Bell, the
old adage, " quot homines, tot sententise," was scarcely
ever more applicable than to the opinions entertained of
the fresh-water spongoid bodies : they are like Polonius's
cloud, — a camel, a whale, or what you please. § The re-
mark was made not many months before the publication
* Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. 99 See also Bosc's Hist. Nat. des Vers, iii.
p. 166.
t Corallina, p. 147—8.
I Exposition Methodique des genres de I'ordre des Polypiers, avec
leur description et celle des principales especes, figurees dans 84i>]anehcs ;
les 63 premieres appartenaiit a I'liistoire naturellc des Zooi)hytes d' Ellis
et Solander. Par J. Lamouroux, D. E. S. p. 28. Paris, 1821, ^to.
§ Zoological Journal, i. p. 202.
56 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
of Dr Grant's memoir,* when the pleasure of toying with
conjectiu-al indulgences was so far desti'oyed for ever. In
it he demonstrated that there was the closest resemblance
between the fluviatile and marine siliceous sponges, — a si-
milarity in structure associated with similar phenomena.
The fibrous net-work, — the siliceous spieula, — the gela-
tinous fluid with its granular bodies, — the pores of admis-
sion to the circiunfluent water, and the orifices for its expul-
sion,— its unintermitting current, unsoiled previous to its
circuit through the porous mass and loaded with feculent
matter on its issue, — and the general mode of growth, whe-
ther in the state of an ovum or in the adidt state, — were as-
certained to be essentially alike in both. But, adds Dr
Grant, " although in every respect a sponge, it (Spongilla)
has a more imperfect structure than any of the marine spe-
cies, wliich is observable in the sameness and feeble attach-
ment of the spieula, in the great size and defenceless state
of the pores and fecal orifices, in the general looseness of its
sm'face and internal texture, in the softness of its gelati-
nous matter, in the want of ciliae and spieula in its ova, —
indeed in every individual character."
In consequence of his discoveries, Dr Grant, at a subse-
quent period, separated the sponges from other zoophytes,
and formed with them a distinct order mider the title of
" Poriphera." It is considered inferior to the Polypes in
the system, but superior to the polygastric or infusory ani-
malcules, f
* " On the structure and nature of the Spongilla friabilis," in Edin.
Phil. Journ. xiv. p. 270—284.
t Outlines of Comp. Anatomy, p. 5. There is an excellent sum-
mary of Grant's discoveries by Milne-Edwards in Lam. Anim. s. Vert.
2tlc edit, ii. p. d'-io.
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 57
MM. Audouin and Milne-Edwards, after an attentive
study of the sponges indigenous to the shores of France,
confirm the exactness of Dr Grant's statements relative to
these singular productions,* which certainly possess an ani-
mal life — " vivent d' une vie tout animal," — but to which
the anatomist may be tempted to refuse animality, since
he cannot distinguish in them any organ by which it is cha-
racterized. Fixed to rocks at great depths they found some
remarkable bodies, belonging to this tribe of beings, whose
surface was entirely covered with a thick siliceous crust.
Their texture is composed of spicula of crystallized silex,
varying in form according to the species, and of an organic
substance which appears to be no other than a confused
mass of globules of extreme littleness. The form of the
elements of the crust varies also ; — sometimes these are
spicula, at other times ovoid granules of siliceous matter.
In most of the species there are two kinds of openings in
the crust in communication with the interior canals, — the
lesser which give entrance to the water around them, —
and others, considerably larger, by wliich that water es-
capes. These productions, allied at once to organic
and unorganized matter, — " qui tiennent a la fois de la
nature organique et inerte," — appear to belong to the
Geodise, and to constitute a genus allied to the sponge.
In reference to the non-irritability of the sponges, pro-
perly so called, Audouin and Milne-Edwards agree with
Dr Grant ; but they found indications of irritability in the
Tethya, — whose structure approaches that of the semi-
spongoid, semi-siliceous bodies just mentioned. When
the Tethya is placed in a vessel of sea-water, and left, for
* L;iniaick"s Anim. s. Veil, -ide edit. li. p. lOo-
5& OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
a time, in perfect quietness, we distinctly see, tliey tell us,
all its apertures agape, and the currents wliich traverse
them. But if we irritate the animal, or remove it an in-
stant from the water, the currents relax or are stopped, and
the oscula contract, by slow and imperceptible degrees, un-
til they ai'e almost completely closed.*
Grant and Audouin and Milne-Edwards always speak
of the sponge as an animal, without any misgivings of its
correctness, while the contrary Mas so evident to Link, the
celebrated Professor of Botany in Berlin, that, even with
a knowledge of the English naturalist's investigations, he
proposed to remove the entire family of sponges to the
Algse. (1831.) For ten or twelve years previously he had an-
nually found seeds, or very distinct sporangia,t in the Spon-
gilla. They are as large as millet-seed, are very visible
to the naked eye, and are found in minute hollows formed
by the net-work of their support : their number is very
great, but in each hollow there is just a single sporangium
fitted exactly to it Hence we conclude that these bodies
cannot be parasites. They are globular, marked some-
times with a dimple resembling a cicatrix. Their colour
is yellowish-green, and the fii'mness of their envelope is con-
siderable. When we break these receptacles of the seeds,
and view them through a high magnifier, we perceive that
the seeds are plunged in a soft mass laid on a gelatinous
membrane, which is reticulated or forms a filleted work :
when dried the mass assumes the appearance of a crust
• Recherches pour servir a I'liistoire natiirelle du Littoral dela France,
i. p. 76-8. Paris, 1832.
I The Sporangium is defined by Professor Liridley to be tbe exter-
nai case of the seeds of Lycopcrdoii and its allies. Introduction to Bo-
tany, p. 209.
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 59
pierced with holes, and with the microscope we see that the
meshes enclose some slender, transparent, coloiu-less tubes,
divided by septa at measured distances. Sometimes we can
see these tubes or sacs project like little points on the
membrane enveloping them ; often it is a little filament
which is enveloped ; sometimes there are several of them,
and the structiu*e in general is not very regular.
The structure of the Spongia officinalis, and many others
newly taken from the sea, is very similar ; and although
sporules have not been detected in these species, yet their
structm^al analogousness to the Spongilla, and the absence
of polj-pes, ought to induce us to arrange them with the
Algae. Ehrenberg has told ]\I. Link that he had found
sporules in several sponges of the Red Sea. As for the
circulation through them described by Dr Grant, Link is
disposed to compare it to the movements of the liquid be-
tween the articulations of the Chara, and wliich, therefore,
is no proof of the animality of the sponge. The feculent
matter mixed with the effluent current is only something
membranous, and merely accidental. True Dr Grant had
observed moveable ova in the Spongia jianicea, but this
sponge which, says Link, is unkno^ni to me, is not a na-
tive of the English shores, where we find only the Al-
cyonium paniceum. And even if ova endowed \s\Xh inhe-
rent powersof motion were found in sponges, that fact would
not prove their animal natiu-e, for several observers have
remarked very sensible movements in seeds, especially in
those of the Conferva. Link believes that the absence of
polypes, the existence of sporangia in Spongilla, the ana-
logy between this one's structure and the true sponges,
are sufficient reasons for separating the " Spongoidees" from
60 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
the zoophytes, and for referring them to the Algae. It is true
that the structure of sponges varies much from that of other
algae, but the structiu-e of the latter presents already in
its class such remarkable modifications that it does not sur-
prise us to meet one more among them. Grant has ob-
served in sponges spicula of pure silex corresponding very
well to the slender fibrous points that we see in the Spon-
gilla, and that have also equal solidit}" and tenuit}'. *
The sponges have also engaged the attention of Du-
jardin, a micrographer of great reputation and experience,
but who seems to have had few opportunities of examining
any other than the fresh-water species. He is right, I
think, in asserting that the skeleton of the sponge is, under
every modification, a product of secretion, and not of crys-
tallization, as the language of Audouin and ]Milne-Ed-
wards seems to imply. He recognizes the thi-ee modifica-
tions of that skeleton described by Grant, but he asserts, if
I do not misinterpret his meaning, that the calcareous and
siliceous spicula may co-exist in the same sponge : and he
controverts the position that the fibres of the horny sponges
ai'e tubulai', for, on the contrary, they ai'e full and imper-
forate. The spicula are formed by the successive deposi-
tion of layers, and are mostly solid also, though in several
there is the appearance of a longitudinal canal in the cen-
tre, and in others small ca\"ities are visible. Those of most
common occurrence ai'e smooth and fusiform, sometimes a
little arched, one-fifth of a millimetre in length, and from
* Annales des Sciences Nat. n. s. Part. Bot, ii. p. 328—30. From
his last remark, Link would seem to be ignorant of the siliceous nature
of the spicula of Spongilla. His Alcyonium paniceum is also evidently
a sponge, identical with our Halichondria panicea.
I
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES.
(A
one-fiftieth to one-eightieth in breadth : others are nodose
either in the middle or at the extremity ; others present
sudden bends or lateral branches ; and there is a very
small kind of spicula which is remarkable fi-om the nume-
rous spinules with which the surface is roughened.
Dujardin has examined ^ith great minuteness the natm*e
of the gelatinous matter that fills more or less the inter-
stices of the sponge. By teai'ing up a specimen in water
this glutinous substance is set fi'ee and diffused in globules.
These, when examined through a good microscope, arc
seen to change their forms gradually, so that they present
themselves to the beholder under twenty different phases if
he will allow a few minutes interval between the di'awings
of his designs. The globules move also across the stage of
the microscope by emitting various lobes and expansions,
with whose emission their locomotion appears to be con-
nected ; and sometimes they are moved by the agitation of
some very long filaments of extreme fineness and tenuity,
proceeding from their sides or extremities. (Fig. 9.)
Fiff. 9.
62 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
These expansions and filaments are developed and disap-
pear in irregidai' successions, regulated in some degree by
the temperatore, for a high temperature acts as a stimulus
upon them, while cold considerably retards the vai'ied
changes. WTien the globides miite into a small parcel or
mass the power of locomotion in it ceases, but the edges
continue to exhibit the same changes in their outline. In
these masses we discover some coloured gi-anules, green in
spring, and grey or yellowish at a later season, which Du-
jardin does not believe to be ovules or seminal, but rather
of foreisrn and accidental origin, similar to those which tinge
the animalcules of coloured infusions.
From the chai-acter of their gelatinous granules and
masses Dujardin entertains no doubt of the animalit}- of
sponges, for he had previously discovered that the Amibes,
and some microscopic multilocular shells, did emit a like
glutinous fluid endowed %vith precisely the same pro-
perties.*
The experiments of Dutrochet, Gervais. and ^Ir John
Hogg having been confined to the fresh-water sponge (iS^ow-
ffilla), I shall defer giving the results of them uutil that
genus comes imder oiu* special consideration. It may suf-
fice to state in this place that these naturalists have been
led to the conclusion that the Spongilla belongs of right to
the vegetable kingdom. ^^Tien ]Mr Hogg began the study
of zoophytes, he participated in the then prevalent opinion
of the animalit}" of sponges in general, and deeming the
organic mucus to be the most essential paii in their struc-
ture, he instituted for them a distinct order in their class,
which he termed Gelatinifern, on piu^ose to express this
* Ann. dps So. Nat. n. s. x. p. 5. &e.
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 63
view of the animal or live jelly.* Subsequent researches
into the nature of the fi-esh-water sponge having convinced
him of his error so far as it was concerned, he began to ima-
gine " that it might possibly be quite a different substance
from the sea-sponges ; and if so, these latter might be yet
esteemed of a true annual nature. However," he conti-
nues, " still more recent and minute comparisons of many
of these, as preserved in several collections, with the Spon-
gilla, have compelled me to abandon that idea ; for I can-
not find any more solid ground for it, than for holding that
one genus of the Fungi, as Merulius, belongs to a per-
fectly distinct division of natiu'e, from another genus of the
same Order, for instance Ayaricus ; and as all who should
behold them would immediately and unhesitatingly ac-
knowledge both the one and the other to be a true mush-
room or Fungus ; so we are equally obliged to admit that
the Spongia and Spojigilla are in fact both real sponges :
indeed there scarcely is even so much as a generic differ-
ence between them ; and in this, with the earlier natm'a-
lists Dr Fleming coincides, for he places both kinds in one
and the same genus, Halichondria.''''
" Both the fresh-water and the sea sponges are fuiniished
with a skeleton of fibres interlacing, crossing, and anasto-
mosing with themselves ; generally also strengthened with
those singularly crystallized particles termed spicula ; with
a parenchymatous soft portion or jelly ; with a fine and
transparent enveloping membrane ; with numerous minute
pores ; and frequently with larger orifices or oscules, which
are more sparingly and irregularly dispersed over their
surfaces ; with passages or canals communicating through
* Natural History of Stocktou-on- Tees, p. .3S. Storktou, I8'27.
64 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
the pores and oscules one with another, along which the
water finds a ready coiu-se or circulation, and affords nu-
triment to all the inner parts of the masses ; with locomo-
tive sporules ; and in some species with fixed sporidia." *
Mr Hogg then proceeds to prove, by the testimony of se-
veral naturalists, the sameness of these sporidia in marine
and fluviatile sponges ; and he combats the argument for
their animality, drawn from their chemical analysis, by
showing that there exists in them no one principle which
is not also to be found in certain vegetable substances,
while the discovery of iodine in the sea sponges determines
that they more neai'ly resemble the Fuci. f He sums up
the evidence of their want of animal life in this sentence :
— " They have no tentacles, no cilia, no mouth, no oeso-
phagus, no stomach or gastric sac, no gizzard, no alimen-
tary canal, no intestine, no anus, no ovaria, no ova, no mus-
cles or muscular fibres, no nerves or ganglia, no irritabi-
lity or powers of contraction and dilatation, no palpitation,
and no sensation whatsoever. Surely, then, we cannot any
longer esteem these natm'al substances to be individual ani-
mals, or even groups of animals, in which not one organ, or
• Lin. Trans, xviii. p. 400-1. Lotsd. 1840.
f Dr Andrew Fyfe, who first discovered iodine to be a constituent of
sponge, asks, " May not the fact, that sponge contains iodine, be an argu-
ment in favour of the opinion of Linnaeus, that this substance properly
belongs to the vegetable world, class Cryptogamia, from the plants of
which iodine is obtained." But he adds, " it appears that the iodine con -
tained in sponge, is in a different state of combination from what it is in
the other substances, as in the former it is not soluble in water, while it is
so in the latter." Edin. Phil. Journ. i. p. 257-8. Edin. 1819 ; and
xiii. p. 199. The argument, rendered suspicious by this circumstance,
is now valueless, for iodine has been detected in cod-liver oil. Edin.
Med. and Surg. Journ. liv. p. 251 ; Brit, and For. Med. Rev. x. p. .558-
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 65
a single function or property peculiar to an animal can
be discovered."*
On similar grounds I had previously been induced to ex-
clude the sponges from amongst zoophytes, f but it must
be allowed that the alleged facts or arguments have made
no impression on those zoologists who are most versed in
the study of these productions. Thus Grant, Schweigger,
Blainville, jNIilne-Edwards, Fleming, Bowerbank, and ]\Ir
Edward Forbes, continue to consider them as members of
the animal kingdom, although they all admit the absence
of those organs and qualities that usually characterise an
animal entity. This class of organized beings, says Blain-
ville, wliich a great number of characters prove to be ani-
mal, is remarkable for that its species are always in more
or less considerable masses having no determinate figure,
and particularly for containing no distinct animalcules
or polypes. Animality becoming less and less distinct as
we trace down the series of creations, and in consequence
also the animal form, we can recognise, neither in the
structure nor in the internal organization of these lowest
productions, any thing which recalls the semblance of the
animals that precede them. It v»'ould seem as if now no-
tliing remained but the common part or polypidom, and that
the polypes have disappeared. ^ — Mr E. Forbes, in his lec-
tm'es delivered during the past ^vinter in Edinbui-gh, taught
the doctrine that sponges are animals in which the life is
compound, with no individual concentration, but with a ten-
dency to such a concentration, representing the animal na-
* Lin. Trans xviii. 404-5.
t Mag. Zool and Bot. i. p. 220. Hist. liiit. Zooph. p. 29.
+ Manuel d'Aftinologic, p. 528.
E
66 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
tui'e imperfectly, and presenting the first appearance of that
nature in the presence of (unlined) excavations in their
interior for digestive purposes. They are passive, acritous
and unique, — that is to say, not divisible into groups of
the same value with the groups to which any of the other
typical di^^sions of the animal kingdom can be divided*
There must be sometliing in the structure of the sponge
to give rise to these ingenious views, which are undoubt-
edly at variance with the usual definition of an animal ;t
and appear indeed to have been formed to obviate the
objections that have hence been made to the admission of
the sponges into that kingdom. What is there outwardly
more universally characteristic of animality than a defined
and limited figure repeating itself, with minute exactness,
tlu'ough successive generations ? But the amorphous de-
velopement of sponges is so remarkable that it has given
the family a name (Amorphozoa), and finds no parallels
excepting among the lowest tribes of vegetables. And than -
irritability there is no other inherent quality of a structure
tiiat affords unequivocal evidence of the existence of ani-
mal life in it ; and yet here there is no symptom of such a
quality.
But it is affirmed that the numerous analogies of structure
and composition which may be traced between sponges and
other well knowm genera of zoophytes prove their mutual af-
finity, and the relationship to be indeed so close that the sepa-
ration of them into distinct orders can be of no advantage to
* 1 am reminded by this view of the sponge, of Linnaeus' definition of
a vegetable: — " Vegetabile est vita composita, absque motu vohnitario."
yyst. Reg. Veg. p. 3,
t Sponges do not possess one of the nine essential characters of ani-
mal life given by Lanwvck. Anim, s. Vert. i. p. 96. •2de edit.
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 67
science.* The zoophytes here alluded to constitute a family
of which the Alcyonium orLobularia is the type ; and while
I think that the resemblance between it and the sponges has
been exaggerated, I must admit that there is an agreement,
sufficiently remarkable, in their composition. The fact is
that from chemistry the zoologist still borrows the best sup-
port to his claim upon the sponges. The peculiar odour
exhaled by them on being burned satisfied Hooke, the ce-
lebrated author of the " Micrographia,"t Ellis and Mon-
tagu ; and being familiarly known only as the effluvium of
animal incinerations, it continues to convince most of us
that, if not animals, the mass whence it proceeds must be of
an animal natm^e. " The analyses which have been made
of sponges," says ]\IjM. IMerat and De Lens, " by several
chemists, Geoffroy, Tromsdorff, Wclther, Hornemann, Fee,
&c. confirm their animal nature, as they fiu-nish, by distil-
lation, abundant ammoniacal products, wliich formerly
■"known as volatile oil and volatile salt of sjwnge, v/ere put to
the same uses as the analogous products of other animal
matters. According to I\Ir Hatchett they consist essential-
ly of gelatine and of a membranous tissue presenting the
characters of coagulated albumen. Accordina; to Horne-
mann they contain osmazome, mucus and fixed oil. Dr
Fyfe of Edinburgh and subsequently i\I. Gualtier de Clau-
bry have ascertained the presence of iodine in the state of
an alkaline iodide, and M. Jouas more recently the existence
of bromine. Besides these they contain about half their
weight of carbonate and phosphate of lime, chloride of so-
dium, silica, alumina, magnesia and traces of sulphur. ":[:
"• Fleming's Phil, of Zoology, ii. p. 612-13.
t Micrographia, p. 137,
\ Diet. Univ. de Maticre Medicale, v. vi. p. 512.
68 OPINIONS AND DISCOVERIES
Since, however, there are some Fungi and Algae, more
especially among the Oscillatorise, which, in the process of
decomposition, give out the same odour ; and since it is
admitted that chemistry furnishes no absolute test to enable
us to detect the veiled members of either kingdom of or-
ganized matter, the question of the rank and position of the
sponges remains undecided. And although it has its im-
portance, for in the framing of a natural system, the in-
troduction of a spurious member, or the absence of an ana-
logue, may mar and perplex the whole, yet the question
will continue, and must be one of words merely, unless the
disputants sliall agree on a definition by which the line
drawn between the tv/o kingdoms can be made more real and
tangible than it is in natiu-e. If the possession of an in-
ternal digestive sac, or indeed of any limited organ for
any function, — if the power of extracting nutriment from
organized matter only, — if the capability of motion, or if
the presence of nerves or of irritability, be considered essen-
tial to animal life, then the sponges are not so endowed :
but they mil be considered to be at least animated in the
opinion of those who believe that a basis similar to horn in
texture and composition, intermixed with a fluid resem-
bling gelatine, indicates some other than a vegetating life,
which, in none of its acknowledged productions, has ever
so combined the materials of its existence. There is, how-
ever, nothing to forbid us believing, with the earlier na-
turalists, that the sponges may belong to neither kingdom ;
— nay the very discussion leads to the conjecture that they
do actually constitute a middle race, in whose features we
can sometimes trace a predominance now of the animal
and no\\' of the vegetable nature. Few on examining the
OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. G9
green SpongTlla would hesitate to pronounce it a vegetable,
a conclusion which the exacter observation of the naturalist
seems to have proved to be correct; and when we pass on from
it to an examination of the calcareous and siliceous marine
genera, the impression is not so much weakened but that we
can still say, with Professor Owen, " that if a line could be
drawn between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the
sponges should be placed upon the vegetable side of that
line."* We shall possibly, however, arrive at an opposite
conclusion if, proceeding in our enquiry, we follow the
siliceous species insensibly gliding, on the one hand, into the
fibro-corneous Sponge filled with its mucilaginous fishy
slime, and on the other into the fleshy Tethya in whose
oscula the first signs of an obscure irritability show them-
selves. Sponges therefore appear to be true zoophytes ;
and it imparts additional interest to their study to consider
them, as they probably are, the first matrix and cradle of
organic life, and exhibiting before us the lowest organiza-
tions compatible with its existence.
- The Lancet, No 871, p. 22 j.
70 THE DISCOVERERS
m.
The Discoverers of the British Species.
In the " Herball" of Gerarde (1633) there is a rude fi-
gure of a British sponge scarcely sufficient to identify the
species in view. It is apparently copied from L'Obel,* who
had found it on the coast of Portland Island among the sea-
wrack. " Of tliis kind," says Ray, " Mr Newton also show-
ed me specimens found by liimself on the British shores.'
Ray has referred it to the Spongia ramosa, but under this
name the father of English Botany has clearly confound-
ed, as he himself suspected, f two or three species, viz. the
Halicliondna oculata, H. i:)almata and stuposa. The //.
panicea is also recorded in the " Synopsis," on the authority
* " Matthias de I'Obel, Insulanus ad summum senium in Anglia fere
vixit, Daniam etiam adiit." " Ad summam ajtatem usque bonus se-
nex in plantis laboravit, et opus herbarium paravit, cui destinabat plan-
las a se ipso et ab uxore initineribus per Angliam lectas. Sed labori im-
raortuus est anno 1616." Haller. Bib. Bot. i. pp. 351, 353.
•|- " Variat Iiebc species, et nunc ramulis est oblongis et teretibus,
de qua Lohelius et Ger. Em. p. 577, quae insida Sheppy pone Sheer-
ness subinde observatur : vel summitatibus planis latisve, caulibus vero
vel ramis augustioribus observatur : vel summitatibus est acuminatis,
caulibus autem latiusculis, crebris secundum longitudinem ramulis acu-
tis, comuum instar enascentibus, quas spongis ramosae alterius Anglicae
nomine a Parkinsono p. 1304, exhibetur, qu£e varietates specie forte dis-
tirigui merentur," Syn. i. p. 29.
I
OF THE BRITISH SPECIES. 71
of Lloyd,* by whom it was gathered near the viHage of
Borth in Cardigansliire, and by Ray himself near Sheer-
ness. Ray has also mentioned the two species or varieties
of the fresh-icater sponge as having been found in the river
Yare near Nor^\dch by Newton ;t and by Mr Bobart :|:
in the " Thames by Swythens Wyars near Oxford ;" and
the same had been noticed growing in the Cam, between
Cambridge and Chesterton, by Morton, — the historian of
the Natural History of Northamptonshire. Dillenius, in
his edition of the " Synopsis," has not added to the list of
sponges, for his " Spongia informis durior" appears to be
identical with the Halichondria panicea already mentioned. §
Ellis has described only two species in his English Co-
rallines ; but in the " Zoophytes," edited by Solander, se-
ven are very clearly defined. These are are 1. Sp. ocu-
lata, 2. cristata, 3. stuposa, 4. urens, 5. palmata, 6. hotry-
oides, and 7. coronata : — all of M^hich, with the important
exceptions of 6 and 7, had been previously ascertained to
be natives, for the oculata, is synonymous with the ramosa
of Ray, and cristata and urens are merely varieties or states
of his crumb-of -bread sponge. Turton, in his translation of
the " System of Nature, 1806," enumerates eleven British
species without, at the same time, having made one single
real addition, for his Spongia tomentosa and panicea are but
* See Hist. Brit. Zoo])Ii. p. 113, note f-
t Ibid. p. 119, notef. •
\ Jacob Bobart, the son of a botanist of the same name, and his suc-
cessor as Superintendant of the Oxford Botanical Garden. Ho died in
December 1719. See Pulteney's Slictches, i. p. 312; and Richardson's
Correspondence, p. 9-11.
§ The " Spongia parva sordidior ex ostrearum concliis" of Pliikenet ;
and the Pseudo-Spongiacoralloidesof Doody, (Syn. p. 29 and 30), I have
not been able to identify.
72 THE DISCOVERERS
one species, his dichotoma the same as oeulata, and the
number is completed by the introduction of the lacustris
and fluviatilis, which Ellis appears purposely to have ex-
cluded, probably fi*om entertaining doubts of their true na-
tui'c. — Two good species were soon afterwards figured by
SowERBY* in his British Miscellany, viz. Sp. pulchella and
Sp. cancellata, but the Sp. compacta of the same excellent
natiu*alist is but a state of the sponge like crumb-of-bread
of Ray. About the same time Professor Jameson disco-
vered some interesting species in the north of Scotland,
among wliich were new to Britain the *S^. ventilabrum and
infundibuliformis of Linnaeus, the Sp. Zetlandica, hitherto
uncharacterized, the Sp. compressa of Fabricius, and the
Tethya eydonium and lyncurium, which, in accordance with
the arrangements of the period, were referred to the genus
Alcyonium.
It thus appears that at this date (December 1809) 15 dif-
ferent sponges were ascertained to be indigenous to Bri-
tain. But in 1812 the catalogue was greatly extended by
the researches of Colonel George Montagu who, in his
essay on Sponges, has described 39 native species, exclusive
of the fresh-water sort, and with an accuracy which no pre-
vious natxu'alist had deemed necessary. The following is a
list of them arranged under their " families" as proposed
by himself:
* Mr James Sowcrby, eminent as a naturalist and artist, and by whose
labours the taste for botany in this country was greatly enlarged, died on
October 25, 1822, after a long and severe illness. " His patient and
indefatigable labours m several branches of natural history are well known
to the scientific world ; and he contributed in various ways to the ad-
vancement of natural knowledge." Annals of Philosophy, n. s. iv. p. 397-
OF THE BRITISH SPECIES. 73
1 . " Branched ; those which arc properly branched, sim-
ple or compound."
1. Spongia oculataf 5. Spongia hispida
2- stuposaf 6. dichotomaf
3. palmataf 7. digitata
4. coalitaf 8. ramosa.
2. " Digitated ; those wliich are divided into lobes or leaves,
on their sides or on the summit."
9. Spongia conus 12. Spongia aurea
10. lobata 13. rigida.
11. perlevis
3. " Tubular ; such as shoot into tubular processes, whether
simple or compound."
14. Spongia coronataf 19. Spongia penicillus
15. botryoidesf 20. laevigata
16. papillarisf 21. ananas
17. tubulosa 22. complicata.
18. foliacea
4. " Compact ; such as are destitute of any divisions, and
are of a compact form, but of indefinite shape, whether of
an open or a solid texture."
23. Spongia tomentosaf 31. Spongia limbata
24. suberia 32. fruticosa
25. cristataf 33. fragilis
26. infundibuliformisf 34. parasitica
27. ventilabrumf 35. fava
28. scyplui 3G. plumosa
29 pukhellaf 37. coriacea.
30. canccHataf
74 THE DISCOVERERS
5. " Orbicular ; such as are globose, with internal, radiat-
ing, asbestine spicula."
38. Spongia verrucosaf 39. Spongia pilosa. *
Dr Grant, in the course of his researches, detected three
species on the Scottish shores not included in this copious
list : viz. Sp. sanr/uinea, cinerea, and seriata.
The attention of the Rev. Dr Fleming seems to have
been early directed to this family of organized beings.
Montagu has acknowledged the assistance derived from
him, and three of the species, \\z. Sp. complicata, scypha,and
pilosa, are introduced into his Essay upon Fleming's sole au-
thority. Availing himself of the discoveries and suggestions
of Dr Grant, Dr Fleming made a happy improvement in
the classification of sponges, which had been previously se-
parated into genera on characters of trivial importance and
confessed instability, such, for example, as their shapes or
degrees of porosity. " The axis," says Dr Grant, " differs
so entirely in its nature in different sponges, that the living
properties observed in one species, ought with very great
caution to be extended to any other, and natm'alists may
probably take advantage of this difference in classifying or
subdividing this numerous and obscure tribe, "f This was
written in 1826 ; and in 1828 Dr Fleming carried the hint
into execution. To such as have their axis or skeleton com-
posed of horny tubular fibres only he restricted the name of
Spongia ; he gave the name of Grantia to those whose ske-
leton consists of calcareous spicula ; and that of Halichon-
* The species to which the character f is affixed had been previously
ascertained to be indigenous.
t Edin. Phil. Journ. xiv. p. 339.
3
OF THE BRITISH SPECIES. 75
dria to such as have siHceous spicula as the basis of their
structure ; separating, however, from these the Tethya be-
cause of the peculiar arrangement of their spicula, and the
hemispherical form of their bodies. The number of spe-
cies described under each genus is as follows :
Tethya,
2
Grantia,
5
Halichondria,
- 18
Doubtful species,
- 14.
Spoiigia,
I
I am enabled through the liberality of my friends and
fellow-students, to make some additions to this list ; but
notwithstanding its extent, the British shores cannot be
deemed favourable to the production of sponges, for the in-
digenous species in general show that their waters are un-
genial to the race by the rarity of the normal species, and
by the dwarfed si^e and compact structure of the others.
Of the genus Spongia we have at most but two incon-
siderable representatives, about a foui'th part of them are
calcareous ; but the great majority are secerners of silex,
which they, like skilful artificers, fashion into crystalline
needles and interweave with the parenchyma of their
bodies.
Fig. 10.
^
THE
BRITISH SPONGES
THEIR SPECIES.
Fi(j. 11.
iio
Alcyoxium riciTS, Esper.
" It is frequent, even with some who pretend to be naturalists, to
vilify the fundamental parts of natural history — who view the particular
species and bodies in nature; their systematic arrangement ; their correct
denomination ; and the description of their parts and properties ; as a
study too minute, frivolous, and beneath their notice ; whose large views
are only directed to what they call the volume of nature, and the great
lines in natural history. But I know of no great lines in natural liistory
tiiat are not composed of small ones : nor have I ever had occasion to ad-
mire any man's knowledge concerning a great line, that was ignorant of
its component parts." — Rev. Dr Walker.
[ 78 ]
CLASS
AMORPHOZOA, Blainv. Man. 527.
Spon'gia, Lin. Syst. Nat. 1296 : Les Eponges, Cuv, Reg. Anim.
iii. 321 : Spongites, Latreille, Fani. Nat. 547 : Alcyonide^ et
Spongidi^, Gray, Brit. PL i. 352, 354 : SpoNGiADiE, Flem. Brit.
Anim. 518: SpongiaiPvES, M. Edwards in Lam. Anim. s. Vert ii.
534, 2de edit : Zoophyta poPvIPERa, Grant, Oiitl. Comp. Anat. 5 ;
and Cyclop. Anat and Pbys. i. 108 ; Roget, Bridge w. Treat i.
147 : Ceratophyta spoxgiosa, Schweigger, Handb. der Naturg.
421.
Character.
Organized bodies growing in a variety of forms, perma-
nently rooted, unmoving and unii-ritable, fleshy, fibro-reti-
cular, or irregularly cellular, elastic and bibulous, com-
posed of a fibro-corneous axis or skeleton, often interwoven
with siliceous or calcareous spicula, and containing an or-
ganic gelatine in the interstices and interior canals : repro-
duction by gelatinous granules generated in the interior,
but in no special organ. — All are aquatic, and, with few ex-
ceptions, marine.
L 79 1
SYNOPSIS OF THE GENERA.
Sponges are
Fibro-reticular, the fibres horny 4. Spongia.
Spongious with sihceous spicula
Globose, compact, fleshy 1. Tethea.
Polpnorphous, cellular and
homologous
Marine, coloiu-ed 2. Halichondria.
Lacustrine, green 3. Spongilla.
Spongious ^\ith calcareous spicula 5. Gk^vntia.
Spongious with imbedded inor-
ganic gravel 6. Duseideia.
Gelatinous without spicula or fibres 7. HxVlisarca.
" Cum tamen intellectus noster absque divisione et subdivisione entia
luimerosissima confundat, confusisque speciebus qutelibet iiotitia vaga
et chaotica existat : descriptio rerum methodica maxime iiccessaiia
redditur." — O. F. Muller.
[ ^0]
" If I fall into error with respect to Synonymes, those who have
studied the subject will readily excuse it, from their knowledge of the
difficulty of avoiding it. If I fail in my endeavours to define all the
British species of Spongia, I am sure of obtaining two desirable objects ;
— that of the pleasure and information the study and researches have
afforded me ; and also that of allowing the scientific to participate with
me in the benefit of these researches, which some friends have urged me
to publish." — Colonel Montagu.
" Quant aux especes, surtout celles qui ont perdu leur couleur, il est
peut-etre encore plus difficile de les distinguer et de les faire distinguer
aux autres, les figures memes, quel que bonnes qu'ellcs soient, ne pou-
vant plus servir a reconnaitre les especes, mais seulement les individ'is,
qui presentent un nombre immense de vaiietes." — JBlainville,
BRITISH SPONGES.
1. TETHEA, Lamarck.
Tetiia or Tethya, Lam. Aiiim. s. Vert. ii. 384 : Gray, Br. PL i.
361 : Flem. Brit. Anim. 519 : ScHW. Beobacht. vii. and Ilandb,
422. — Les Thethyes, Cuv. Reg. Anim. iii. 321 — Tethium, Blainv.
Man. 544.
Character. Sponge tuberous, suhorhicular, solid and com-
pact, invested tvith a distinct rind or skin, the interior sar-
coid, loaded with siliceous crystalline spicula collected into
bundles and radiating from a more compact nucleus to the
circumference. Marine,
A distinct and well-characterized genus, but not so happily
named, for although the Tetie of Donati is one of its species,
the Tetliea of Pliny appears to have been a mollusk resembling
the oyster. " Lateris dolores leniunt hippocampi tosti sumti,
tetlieaque similis ostreo in cibo sumta." Hist. Nat. lib. xxxii,
cap. 30. Moreover, Bohatsch had given the name Tethyum
to the singular naked mollusk which Linnaeus registered in the
Systema under the name of Tethis ; while in the classification
of the TuNiCATA by Savigny, the Tethyce is a family of that
group of animals.
82 BRITISH SPONGES:
In the native species of Tethea there are neither pores nor
oscula ; and Mr Edward Forbes informs me that in the living T.
Cranium he did not observe any currents of water passing into
or from the body. Audouin and Mihie-Edwards, however, have
seen these currents. When a Tethea, they tell us, is placed in
a basin filled with sea-water, and left for a considerable time
perfectly still, we then see distinctly all its oscula wide agape,
and we perceive also the ciu-rents which pass through them.
But if now the animal is irritated, or withdrawn for an instant
from the water, the currents slaken or are altogether arrested ;
and the oscula, contracting slowly and insensibly, become at
last almost close. — Hist. Nat. du Litt. de la France, i. p. 78.
The propagation of the Tethea is by means of sporules or
gemmules generated within the sarcoid matter. The latter re-
semble the parent sponge in miniature, but they have no dis-
tinct rind nor nucleus, being composed of simple spicula woven
together by the albuminous matter. I can conceive no way of
escape for these from the body except by its dissolution, which,
we may also conjecture, with considerable probableness, is an
annual production. The naturalist who believes that sponges
have an affinity with the Fungi will see in these particulars a
correspondency which may strengthen his belief. The Tethea,
he may say, is the Sea's copy of the earth-born Sclerodei*ma ;
and he may remind us that, like the sporules of sponges, the
sponiles of Fungi are equally locomotive. The Chaos fungorum
of Linnajus is thus described : " Habitat, uti semen Lyco-
perdi, Agarici, Boleti, Mucoris reliquoinimque Fungorum, in
sua matre, usque dum dispergatur et in aqua exclusum vivit et
moritur, demum figitur et in fungos excrescit, observante illustr.
0th. Mvmchhausen Lib. Bar. Zoophytorum metamorphosis
e Vegetabili in Animale ; Fungorum itaque contrario ex Ani-
mali in Vegetabile." — Syst. p. 1326.
TETHEA. 83
1. T. Cranium, aurface regular and closely villous.
Plate I. Fig. 1-8.
Alcyonium Cranium, 3IulL Zool. Dan. prod. 255. Zool. Dan. tab.
Ixxxv. (The description only, for tbe figure, in my copy, repre-
sents an Ophiura.) Turt. Gmel. iv. 654. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 347.
Corall. 248.
Alcyonium globosum fibrosum fiavum setosum, Mull. Zool. Dan.
tab. clvii. fig. 1 , 2.
Alcyonium Lyncurium, Esper, Alcyon. tab. xix. i\g. I- Jamexmi in
Wern. Mem. i. 56-3.
Spongia pilosa, Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 119, pi. 13, fig. 1, 2.
Tethya Cranium, Lavi. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 386 -. and ii. 592, 2de
edit. Flem. Brit. Anim. 51 9. Blainv. Actinol. 544. Stark, Elem.
ii. 423.
Tethya pilosa, Gray, Brit. PI. i- .'?62. Grant in Edin. New Phil.
Journ. i. 196.
Hab. Island of Fulah, Jameson. Adhei'es to stones in deep
water, Zetland, where it is termed Sea- Apple, Fleming.
Sponge from one to two or three inches in diameter, tu-
berous, subglobular, flattened on its base, the surface even but
rough or muricate, and hirsute from the projection of the spi-
cula, of a uniform yellowish-white colour when preserved in spi-
rits. A section discovers in the centre a round solid nucleus of a
glistening white colour, composed of bundles of siliceous spicula
laid in close parallelism. Bundles of spicula shoot from it to-
wards the circumference, passing through a sort of fungous pa-
renchyma of a pale yellowish colour, which connects them toge-
ther and fills all the space between the nucleus and the skin.
The same spicula do not traverse the whole space, but new ones
originate in it, where bundles can be seen to terminate, and
others to begin. The spicula nearest the sui*face penetrate the
skin and shoot beyond it, always in bundles, which issue, as it
were, from the papillae, and impart to the sponge its muricated
and villous appearance. The skin is about a line in thickness,
somewhat cartilaginous, uniform throughout, and of the same
white colour as the nucleus. The spicula are asbestine, long,
84 BRITISH SPONGES:
slender, straight, and pointed at both ends, but, from their brit-
tleness, the points, especially of the protruding ones, are often
broken off abruptly. Those of the nucleus and parenchyma
are, in general, more than twic'e as stout as the cuticular ones,
and always simple and rigid ; but many of the latter are hair-
like, very slender, and three-pronged at their projecting extre-
mity, some with only two prongs, but these are probably de-
fective from injury. Professor Grant says that there are two
kinds of spicula, — a long straight fusiform sort, and the other
shorter, curved, of equal thickness throughout, and rather ob-
tusely pointed at both ends. The latter are about one-fourth
the length of the straight ones, and are found only in the rind,
where they abound.
There is no appearance of polypes nor of any figured organ
in the structm'e of this sponge, nor is the interior traversed by
any canals, but there are a few irregular or scattered holes in
the parenchyma, which, however, have no passage at the sur-
face. Immersed in this parenchyma we likewise find a number
of oviform bodies, large enough to be visible to the naked eye,
and of an opake white colour. They are globose or ovate, slight-
ly uneven, and somewhat spiny, from the protruding ends of
spicula. WTien compressed between plates of glass they are
found to consist of a parenchyma traversed in every direction
by slender spicula, and apparently homogeneous in their com-
position. They are evidently the germs of future sponges, but
it is difficult to conceive by what means, or by what passages,
they escape from the parent, unless we suppose that by its death
and dissolution, it gives liberty and life to a numerous offspring.
— When fresh the sponge " exhales an offensive ammoniacal
odour," which specimens preserved in spirits retain Mul-
ler had seen a specimen which was five inches in diameter and
had a resemblance to the human skull. He tells us that when
living the species is of a fine yellow colour, but sometimes whit-
TETHEA. 85
ish, especially when young ; and that it is covered with a green
gelatine. " Lacunre nullae nee puncta stellata apparent in vivo
glutine et mucore quodam viridi plus minus obducto." — Zool.
Dan. iii. p. 6.
The Tethia cranium, of Risso (L'Europ. Merid. v. 3G4) is
altogether different from the British species.
2. T. Lyncurium, globose, the surface warted, sparinyhj
hispid.
Woodcut, No. 12.
Tetie sferica, con superficie da tiibercoli semisferici formata, e con
vertebra nel centra, i)o?ia2 BRITISH SPONGES:
])roportion of gelatinous fluid which fills the cells and, on dry-
ing, forms a thin pellicle at the bottom and on their sides.
This may possibly be the primary or crustaceous condition of
H. aegagropila, but the surface of recent specimens is not coated
with a skin, nor does the gelatine on drying foi*m any thing si-
milar. The fewness of the siliceous spicula is another remarkable
diagnostick, for of this species the mineral ingredient consists
principally of small uncrystalline gravel, which is imbedded in
the animal matter, and amid which the spicula are almost lost.
19. H. INCRUSTANS, irregular, extremely porous, rather
hard and brittle, like crunih-of-hread or oftener like apiece of
old worvi-eaten cork ; oscula obscure, substellated, even xuith
the surface ; spicula rather short, needle-shaped, straight
or slightly curved.
Plate XII, Fig. 3. and Plate XIII, Fig. 5.
Alcyoniumincrustans, i'sjjer, Alcyoji. tab. 15. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii.
397 : 2de edit. ii. 603. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 340. Corall. 244.
Spoiigia fava, Montagu in Weni. Mem. ii. 115. Gray, Brit. PI. i.
360.
Spongia paiiicea, Grant in Edin. Phil. Journ. xiii. 104; xiv. 118;
and in Edin. New Phil. Journ. i. 347 ; ii. 128, 138, pi. 2, fig.
4, 24, 27- — 29, copied in Blainv. Actinol. pi. 94.
Halichondria panicea, Flem. Brit. Anim. 320.
Halispongia panicea, Blainv. Actinolog. 532.
Hah. On rocks within low-water mark. On rocks in the
Firth of Forth, abundant ; Island of Staifa, Dr Grant. Scar-
borough, Mr Bean. Coast of Devon, not common, Montagu.
Plymouth, J. C. Bellamy. Shores of the Isle of Man, Mr E.
Fo7-bes. Dublin bay. A: H. Hassall.
This unattractive species has presented itself to me (1*/) in
the form of a thick crust spreading irregularly over the rock ;
and (2rula occupies a single cell,
to which it is exactly adjusted. Ann. dcs. Sc. Nat. Part. Bot. n. s. ii.
p. 328.
SPONGILLA. 153
crowded in one place, while they are entirely wanting in another."
They are about the size of turnip-seed, of a globular shape
and yellowish colour, with a rough external surface, but which
is not ciliated, neither have they any power of locomotion.*
They are composed P. of contained globules essentially similar
to the gelatinous granules already described ; and 2°. of an elastic
cartilaginous envelope which, according to M. Gervais, consists
of two layers, — an inner one, which is firm and reddish, and an
outer one, which is tomentose and tinted with a gilded yellow.
There may be observed on most of the sphgerulas, a spot to
which attention was first called by Link and Raspail. They
considered it to be a hihcm, but Gervais is of opinion that it
cannot be so, because the sphaerula has no pedicle or funiculum,
lying loose amidst the green globules, and because this pre-
tended hilum is sometimes multiplicate, viz. it is sometimes
double, and still oftener triple or quadruple. The spot in ques-
tion has usually the reddish colour of the inner envelope, for it
is in fact formed by a portion of this becoming visible in con-
sequence of the partial obliteration of the external tunic. It is
at this spot that the contained globules burst through, and after
they have escaped, there remains a very perceptible hole. While
still enclosed in the sphaerula the globules lie sometimes scat-
tered confusedly in the interior, but occasionally they are united
in little it)undish masses without any peculiar envelope. In some
* " Autumnali tempore in luijus poris sparsis glohulos caerulescentes
magnitudine seminum tliymi, nitidos in flainma candelre fulgiirantes ob-
servavit C. Blom. M. D. an corpora peregrina ?" Lin. Syst. 1299. In
a letter to Ellis, Limiffiiis thus describes the same bodies: — " Tbere is
lately come to my hands, from one of our Swecdish lakes, a most beau-
tiful Spongia, though in a dried state, in which I can distinctly see some
animalcula in their transparent vesicles. The branches of this Spongia,
when brought to the flame of a candle, take fire with a bright effulgence,
and the animalcules explode in little fiery globules of a very lively blue."
Lin. Corresp. i. p. 183.
154 BRITISH SPONGES:
cases it happens, however, that while even within the sphserula
the globules give origin to the formation of other sphaerulae,
just as they do when expelled from it. Thus Gervais has found
beneath the bases of some masses of Spongillse a great number
of these parent sphaerulae, which themselves contained two, thi*ee,
or even four others, having the same structure, the same com-
position, and the same yellowish colom*.*
There appears reason to believe that the contained globules
are essentially the same as the gelatinous granules of the organic
mucus. The observations of Professor Grant are, it is true, op-
posed to this conclusion, for his description of the contained globules
diifers from that which he has given of the granules ;-f- nor did
he find that either thev or the entire sporidia suffered any change,
or showed any sign of germinating, during the six weeks they
* According to Meyen these spliEerulae, sporidia or sporangia (for all
these terms are applied to them) of Spongilla are essentially distinct from
the sporangia of Algoe, and are similar to what are denominated the winter
eggs of polypes. " They consist of a coriaceous skin, which is covered
over with a thick crust, except at a small circular spot. This crust is
composed of minute and delicate siliceous particles of the 3-50th of a
millimetre in length, which particles are composed of vertically placed
spicula of 1-250 to l-200th of a Mm. broad, at whose extremities near
the circumference, more or less toothed, little disks are found. At an
after period from 4 — 5, or more generally 7 — 8 of the teeth elongate,
becoming uncinate and curved rays. Between the spicula exists carbo-
nate of lime, having a cellular structure. Within the eggs are delicate
cells filled with various granular matters. Besides the larger siliceous
spicula found within the substance of the sponge, there exists more de-
licate ones of the l-16th to 1-lOth of a Mm. long, having upon their sur-
face numerous little points, which elongate as their age increases." Mi-
croscopic Journal, i. p. 42.
f He describes them as gelatinous globules, each containing " about a
hundred very small white opake particles, which lie close together on one
side of the globule, and occupy about a third of its capacity." The ge-
latinous portion is soluble, but the white particles suffered no change,
" though they seem to possess the power of slowly changing their posi-
tions."
SPONGILLA. 551
were kept under observation, althovigh the true ova of the Spon-
gilla, in the same vessel, were growing and spreading vigorous-
ly. But the subsequent experiments of Dutrochet, Gervais, and
Mr John Hogg, leave no doubt of the truly seminal character
of the sphaerulas, — their granular contents contributing to the in-
crease of the original mass when they ai"e shed in it, and when
retained until the sphserula has been separated by decomposition
or maturity, they then give origin to new individuals. The pro-
gress of their developement has been well described by my friend
Mr Hogg. " Having taken," he says, " many of these fresh
seed-like bodies from their fixed localities in the cells or pores
of the sponge, I deposited them in a china dish nearly filled with
water, which I renewed twice a-day. I was most attentive in
examining, not only with my naked eye, but also with a power-
ful lens, whether these bodies possessed any spontaneous mo-
tions, but could not discover the least appearance of any ; on
the contrary, the instant they were put into the water they sunk
to the bottom of the dish ; there remaining motionless, most of
them commenced to genninate, and became permanently fixed.
Several of these seed-like bodies being of different sizes, I found
that some began to grow sooner than others, probably by rea-
son of their being in a more mature state. The manner of ger-
mination, according to my observation, is this : when the seed-
like body has lain a sufficient time in the water, a very small
quantity of a soft opake substance appears spontaneously pro-
truding from its apex or orifice at its top ; it is of a pure white
colour, and soon glues the seed-like body to the dish ; this sub-
stance gradually increases, and sometimes entirely enveloping
the parent body, continues spreading over whatever object it has
attached itself to. At first there are no distinct traces of the
sponge itself, but only a white tliick gelatinous matter, like a
piece of wet cotton wool, is all that is to be seen : this, however,
when allowed to drv, will exhibit the thin membrane of the
lo6 BRITISH SPONGES:
sponge, and the oscules and cells or pores formed by the inter-
lacing and crossing of the young fibres with the sharp and pro-
minent spicula. As a few of these bodies, after several days,
did not germinate, I squeezed them sufficiently hard, so as to
break their envelopes or shells, and pressed out a little of the
inner opake substance, which then very readily grew and en-
larged." *
The various opinions entertained by naturalists relative to the
nature of Spongilla have been already mentioned.f Mr Hogg
is the latest and most strenuous advocate of its vegetability.
From numerous observations and experiments, made with care
and under favourable circumstances, he found that the intensity
of the greenness of the Spongilla depends upon its more or less
direct exposure to the light, for specimens were alternately
blanched and greened by turning dowTi the surface of the stone
on which they grew, and, after a due season, reversing its posi-
tion.:}: Now, as light has exactly the same effect on plants, and
is not known to have any similar influence on the colour of ani-
mals, the experiments afford a strong presumption that this pro-
duction is more nearly allied to the algae or fungi than to any
member of the animal kingdom, and Mr Hogg strengthened
this inference by other facts. He fomid, for example, that the
* See some recent observations by Laurent on tbe I'eproductive or-
gans of Spongilla in the Microscopic Journal, i. p. 78.
f In addition to those names of naturalists who advocated the vege-
table nature of sponges, especially of the Spongilla, those of Bhimenbach
(Elem. Nat. Hist. Trans, p. 271), and De La Pylaye should be added.
The latter confounded the Cristatellaj with Spongilla. Bidl. des Sci-
ences Nat. xvii. p. 99.
I Lamouroux ascribed the variable colour of the Spongilla to the na-
ture of the sites from which it grew : Bory St Vincent to the presence
of the Anabaina impalpabilis. " S' introduit dans I'Eponge d'eau douce,
et lui donne dans certains endroits cette couleur verte, qu'elle n'a point
quand I'Anabaine ne croit pas dans son voisinage." Ency. Method. Zoo-
logie- For this reference I am indebted to my friend, William Thompson,
Esq.
SPONGILLA. 157
diaphanous pellicle which invests the soft jelly of the sponge and
its canals had a general resemblance to the cuticle of the leaves
of many of our common plants ; while the jelly itself is very si-
milar to their parenchymatous substance, composed as it is of
numerous pellucid globules. It was ascertained also that the
green colouring matter or " chromule" contained in these glo-
bules, on being pressed out, gave a permanent green or yellow-
ish-green colour to white paper, not to be distinguished from
the stains produced by the chromule of leaves and plants ; and
strong acids had the same effects on the sponge as they are seen
to have upon plants macerated in them. Add to these corre-
spondencies the fact that numerous bubbles of gas, most proba-
bly oxygen, are disengaged from the surface of the living mass
of Spongilla, when exposed to the brightest solar light, just as
is knowii to occur with the leaves of a plant when immersed in
water and submitted to the direct action of the light of the sun,
and we have seemingly a series of proofs which, in the absence
of any trace of animal organization or property, almost demon-
strate its sameness with the products of vegetable life.
In whatever way this question may be settled, it is now indis-
putable that the verdict affects the position and rank, not of the
Spongilla alone, but of the whole family of sponges ; and there
are facts which this wider range of the enquiry brings before
us, that makes us hesitate to accept the proofs of Mr Hogg as
valid and complete. The anomalous circulation through the
sponge is one of these facts, for its existence in every species,
and the sameness of its phenomena in all, are surely incompa-
tible with the explanation of it which Mr Hogg has given. Af-
ter many careful experiments, my friend asserts that he has
never been able to witness these currents in any specimen of
Spongilla which has been entirely destitute of every parasitical
insect or other animal ; and he has therefore concluded that the
currents are caused by some insect, (usually by the anomalous
158 BRITISH SPONGES:
insect which Mr Westwood has denominated the Branchiosto-
ma Spongillae,*) or crustacean or molluscan. Nearly every spe-
cimen of Spongilla is indeed a rich nestling place for one or moi'e
species of these classes, but thence to conclude that it is by
means of their respiration that the currents which enter into and
flow out from the pores and oscules of the sponge are generated
and kept alive, is at variance with the previous observations of
Grantf and Dutrochet. Nor does the cause assigned seem ade-
quate to the explanation of the phenomena, which are very dif-
ferent from those presented by the intennitting currents occa-
sioned by the breathing of any animal I have observed ; and it
is difiicult to believe that a current which is uniform and conti-
nuous, and always directed in one course, can depend on any
cause which, like the action of breathing, must vary every mo-
ment in intensity, quickness, and in position, by the motions and
actions of the animals.
The structure of the fresh-water sponges is so like that of the
Halichondrise, that Dr Fleming has deemed their separation un-
necessary, but the systematists who have done otherwise are
justified in their views by the looser texture of the Spongilla, its
green colour, the existence of the seminiferous capsules at sea-
sons in the cells, and the peculiarity of its habitat. Oken ap-
pears first of all to have proposed this separation, but the name
which he conferred on the genus, as well as that subsequently
given to it by Lamouroux, has yielded to the superior influence
* For notices of this animal see Athenaeum for 1838, p. 899 ; Charles-
worth's Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. p. 200 ; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. p.
315 ; Lin. Trans, xviii. p. 390.
t " The whole arrangement of the spicula, around the canals, shows
that these are not accidental passages, formed by worms or aquatic in-
sects in a vegetable substance, and helps to prove that its currents are
not produced by any foreign intruders, though this substance is infested
with myriads of ciliated animalcules, which are constantly producing cur-
rents to attack their prey." — Grant,
SPONGILLA. 159
of Lamarck's nomenclature, which has received so general an
assent that we have felt constrained to adopt it also, although
the claim of priority is thus infringed upon.
1. Sp. fluviatilis, " soft., brittle, and slenderly Jihrous
token dry ;" spicula slightly curved, linear and sharp pointed
at both ends.
Plates XVIL and XVIII.
Spongia fluviatilis, Pall. Elench. 384. Lin. Syst. 1299. Berk.
Syn.i. 21.3. Twrif. Gmel. iv. 662. Bhimenb. Man. 272. Base
Vers, iii. 178-
Badiaga fluviatilis, Spreng. Syst. Veg. iv. 374.
Ephydatia fluviatalis, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 6. Corall. 148.
Halichondria fluviatilis, Flem. Brit. Anim. 524.
Les Eponges d'eau douce, Gervais in Ann. des. Sc. Nat. n. s. iv.
254.
Spongilla on Eponge d'eau douce, Dujardin in Ann. des. Sc. Nat.
n. s. X. 4, pi. i. fig. 1-4.
State a.. Sponge crustaceous, massive and slightly lobed, or throrvivg
up short branches. — Plate XV II.
Spongia fluviatilis anfractuosa, perfragilis, ramosissiina nostras,
Plunk. Phytog. tab. 112, fig. 3.
Spongia fluviatilis vamosa fragilis, Raii, Hist. PI. iii. 16. Syn. i. .30.
no. 6.
Fungus vel potius Spongia \'iridis, doliolis adnascenti similis, Raii,
Syn. i. 57, no. 11.
Spongia lacustris, Lin. Flor. Suec. 4-39, no. 1190. Fl. Lapp. 389.
Syst. Nat. 1299. Esper, Spong. tab. 23 A, fig. 1-11. Berk. Syn.
i. 213. Turt. Gmel. iv. 662. Turt. Brit. Faun. 209. Stew.
Elem. ii. 435. Bosc Vers, iii. 178. Link in Ann. des. Sc.
Nat. n. s. Bot. ii. .328.
Spongia friabilis, Esper, Spong. tab. 62, fig. 1-4. Turt. Gmel. iv.
662. Bosc Vers, iii. 178.
Ephydatia lacustris, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 7. Corall. 149.
Ephydatia friabilis, Lamojtr. Cor. Flex. 6. Corall. 148.
Spongilla friabilis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 100 : 2de edit. ii. 114.
Risso, L'Europ. Merid. v. 367. Grant in Edin. Phil. Jouni. xiv.
183 and 270 ; and in Edin. New. Phil. Journ. ii. 138, pi. 2, fig.
1, (the spiculum), copied in Blainv. Atlas, pi. 94, fig. 1. Blainv.
160 BRITISH SPONGES:
Man. 534. Schweig. Handb. 421. Templeton in Mag. Nat.
Hist. ix. 470. Stark, Elem. ii. 442.
Spongilla pulvinata, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 99: 2de edit. ii. 113.
Gray, Biit. PI. i. 353.
Spongilla fluviatilis, Blainv. Actinol. 534, pi. 92, fig. 6. Hogg's
Stockton, 39. Hogg in Ann. Nat. Hist. i. 478 ; ii. 370 -. iii. 58 and
459 ; \'i. 315. Hogg in Trans. Lin. Soc. xviii. 363 ; and in
Charlesicortli's Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. 259.
Spongilla lacustris, Blainv. Actinol. 5.34.
State /S. Erect and branched, plant-like. Plate xviii.
Spongia ramosa fluviatilis Nevvtoni, Raii, Hist. PI. i, 81; Sjm. i^
30, no. 5.
Spongia fluviatilis ? Lin. Fl. Suec. 440, no. 1191.
Spongia lacustris, Esper, Spong. tab. 23, fig. 1, 2.
Spongia caiialium, Titrt. Gmel. iv. 662. Hose Vers, iii, 179.
Ephydatia canalium, Za?H02/r. Cor. Flex. 6. Corall. 148. Fleming
in Edin. Phil. Journ. ii, 88. Flem. Phil. Zool. ii, 614, pi. 5,
fig. 4.
Spongilla ramosa, Lain. Anim. s. Vert ii, 100; 2de edit, ii, 114.
Gray, Brit. PI. i, 353. Dutrochet in " Ann. des Sc. Nat. Oct.
1828, p. 205 ;" and in Bull, des Sc. Nat. xvii, 156. Stark,
Elem. ii, 442.
Spongilla canalium, Blainv. Actinolog. 534.
Spongilla lacustris, Schweig. Handb. 421.
Spongilla pulvinata, Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist, ix, 470.
Hab. On rocks and other solid bodies at the bottom of deep
ponds, lakes and in still running waters, frequent, and found dis-
tributed very generally throughout the island.
Wlien young this sponge " appears in small, round, convex
spots of a light grey-coloured, soft, downy substance, adhering
to the surface of stones under water, or spreading irregularly as
a flat woolly covering of a light greenish-grey colour, having a
line or two of thickness, and an extension of one or two inches.
But as it advances in growth, it becomes more compact in tex-
ture, and of a darker sea-green colour, acquires a thickness of
more than two inches, covers a continuous surface of several
feet in length, sends up from every part of its surface irregular,
SPONGILLA. 161
short, compressed lobes, sharp ridges, thhi laminae, or cylmdri-
cal small branches rounded at their extremities, and it presents
numerous very distinct apertures, of different sizes, leading into
its interior. From the looseness of its porous surface and inter-
nal texture, and from its mode of enveloping substances in the
progress of its growth, we generally find in its interior portions
of sand, mud, or gravel, shells of fresh water testacea, frag-
ments of roots or branches of trees, tubularige, larvae, particu-
larly of phryganeae, innumerable animalcules, and different kinds
of ova.
" In its living state, the Sp. friabilis is so soft and brittle that
it can scarcely be handled or lifted without tearing, feels slight-
ly unctuous between the fingers, has a strong disagreeable smell,
like that of stagnant ditches in the heat of summer, tastes cool-
ing without any marked flavour, and quickly diffuses among the
saliva, leaving only some earthy particles between the teeth ;
it sinks slowly in water, appearing lighter than most marine
sponges. When pressed, a thin slimy turbid greenish-coloured
matter escapes, mixed with a considerable portion of water, and
the remaining fibrous portion has a light grey colour, and stiff
gritty feel. When allowed to putrefy in water, a thick, fatty
layer covers the surface of the fluid, the water acquires a tur-
bid yellowish colour, the Spongilla becomes of a blackish-green
hue, and emits a most offensive putrid animal odour, like that of
the most putrid offals. A portion of it, whether fresh or putrid,
placed on a red hot iron, smells like burning skin or membrane,
the soft parts are dissipated, and the fibrous residue becomes
red hot, but does not consume nor change much its form." Grant.
To this excellent description of the Spongilla by Dr Grant, I
have only to add that, when growing in running water, it fre-
quently assumes an arborescent form, rising to the height of
from six to twelve inches and dividing, like a leafless shrub, into
cylindrical tapered branches, which are often loaded with the
162 BRITISH SPONGES:
seminal capsules. This state of it has been by many reckoned
a distinct species, but the inconstancy and pliancy of the Spon-
gilla is so great, that I readily assent to the opinion of Gervais,
Blainville and others, who believe that even the most dissimi-
lar of its forms are dependant on the varying influence of ex-
ternal circumstances. I have not been able to detect any es-
sential difference in texture, or in the form of the spicula.
Dr R. D. Thompson, on an analysis of this species, found
it to consist of,
Organic matter,
26.
Silica,
50.66
Carbonate of lime,
13.0
Pfiosphate of lime,
10.1
Alumina,
. a trace.
99.86
According to Gmelin the powder of Sp. fluviatilis is employ-
ed as a veraiifuge in Russia.
2. Sp. lacustris, " hard, brittle, and coarsely Jibrous ;
spicula linear and doubly pointed.''^
Spongia lacustris, " Don's Animals of Forfarshire, 36."
Halichondria lacustris, Flem. Brit. Anim. 324.
Hab. " In lakes in Angus and Fife," Fleming.
" Massive, rising into short rounded branches : the fibres are
coarser, and the substance denser than the preceding ; the spi-
cula, too, though similar in form, are thicker, and about one-
fourth shorter." Fleming. — This difference in the spicula ap-
pears to prove the distinctness of this species, with which I am
not acquainted.
I may here remark that some of the descriptions given of
fresh-water sponges seem to have been derived from states of
Alcyonella stagnorum. It is from a mistake of this kind that
SPONGILLA. 163
Lichtenstein was led to consider the fresh-water sponge as the
nidus, not of the Cristatella, as stated by Lamarck, but of the
Tuhularia sultana of Blumenbach, which is a species of the
modem genus Plumatella, (and probably only a state of the
Alcyonella), and which, according to Blumenbach, is often in-
terwoven with the Spongilla. Linnaeus' description of Spongia
fluviatilis, in the Flora Suecica, leads to a conjecture tluit he
also had a state of the Alcyonella in view, for " semina lenti-
formia" is a very apt description of its ova, and irreconcilable
with the globular seeds of the sponge. And has not M. Lau-
rent made the same mistake ? In opposition to the experiments
of Grant, Dutrochet, and Hogg, it is asserted that the experi-
ments of M. Laurent " demontrent d'une maniere evidente que
le tuheAes jeunes Spongilles fluviatiles est irritable, c'est-a-dire
susceptible de se contracter sous Tinfluence dirritans mecani-
ques." Revue Zoologique par la Societe Cuvierienne, for Au-
gust 1838, p. 188. It is unnecessary to say that the young
Spongillse have no tubes.
" In ipsis rebus, quae discuntur et cognoscuntur, invitamenta sunt,
quibus ad discendum, cognoscendumque movemur." Cicero.
164 BRITISH SPONGES:
4. SPONGIA, Liniiffius.
Spongiae pars, Lin. Lam. Lamour. Achilleum, Schweig. Beo-
bacht. vii. Haiidh. 421 Spongia, Flem. Brit. Anim. 524.
Blainv. Man. 529.
Character. Body multiform^ very porous^ elastic,
composed of a network of corneous fibres inosculating in
every direction and traversed by tortuous canals opening on
the surface by wider orifices ; the fibres often contain im-
bedded spicula : gelatine fugacious : marine.
Ohs. " In the horny species of Porifera," says Professor
Grant, " the skeleton consists of thin elastic tubular translu-
cent filaments united together and distributed around the pores,
canals and vents. These horny, tough, flexible threads have a
close analogy in their mode of distribution through the whole
interior of the body to the tough connecting matter of the spi-
cula in the earthy species, and they give form and support to
the whole fabric. Sometimes the internal canal which extends
through these tubular horny filaments is filled with an opake
matter which gives a greater friability to the threads ; but most
frequently they contain only a transparent coloui'less fluid."
Outlines of Comp. Anatomy, p. 8.
SPONGIA. 165
The recent observations of Mr Bowerbank have shown that
this description of the Spongise is erroneous. He has proved
that the " filament" is solid ; and he has also proved that it is
often abundantly furnished with siliceous spicula. * It may be
said that the latter species are properly members of the genus
Halichondria, but so similar are they in appearance, form, struc-
ture, elasticity and bibacity to the purely horny or keratose kinds,
and so imlike the tj'pical siliceous ones, that the separation
would be injurious to a natural arrangement, and would be hos-
tile to the maxim " that a genus should furnish a character,
not a character form a genus." f Indeed it is too evident that
the distinction between the keratose and the siliceous sponges
is one of degree only, not of essence : in the former the fibre is
either entirely horny or it secretes minute spicula which are
always imbedded in the centre of the tissue, — in the latter the
animal matter has a greater secerning power, and in general
the spicula lie exposed or predominate so far as to constitute
the principal ingredient of the sponge. Yet there are species
which commingle the characters of Halichondria and Spongia
so intimately in their structure that we can at best but puzzle
out their true genus.
Mr Bowerbank has also made the very interesting discovery
* " The small fibres usually Lave none and the largest abound in them.
The young sponges are also frequently without them, but the adult ones
never." Bowerbank in litt.
j- Linnceus " laid it down as a maxim, that all genera are as much
founded in nature as the species which compose them ; and hence fol-
lows one of the most just and valuable of all his principles, that a genus
should furnish a character, not a character form a genus ; or, in other
words, that a certain coincidence of structure, habit, and perhaps quali-
ties, among a number of plants, should strike the judgment of a botanist,
before he fixes on one or more technical characters, by which to stamp
and define such plants as one natiu'al genus." Sir J. E. Smith's Introd.
to Botany, p. 182. edit. 1833.
166 BRITISH SPONGES:
that many species of this genus are distinguished by the pos-
session of a beautiful branched vascular tissue, which surrounds
the fibre, frequently anastomosing and running in every possi-
ble direction over its surface. This tissue is not imbedded in
the horny mass of the fibre, but is contained in a sheath, which
closely embraces it. In some of these vessels Mr Bowerbank
observed numerous minute globules, exhibiting every appear-
ance of being globules of circulation analogous to those found
in the blood of the higher classes of animals. These molecules
were extremely minute, varying from the yfi^g-gth to the
Jouo 0^^ of an mch in diameter.
In a recent state the surface of the Spongias appears to be
covered with a reticulated membrane of more delicate organi-
zation and with finer meshes than the interior network. The
interstices of the whole mass is as usual occupied with an orga-
nic mucus similar to that of the other genera ;• and in some spe-
cies it is not less loaded with minute siliceous spicula than are
the fibres themselves.
The Spongiae are propagated probably by gemmules generat-
ed in and from the organic mucus, as Mr Bowerbank has shown
in one Australasian species. *
From their softness and indestructible elasticity, and their re-
markable bibulous property, the Spongiae are adapted to many
economical uses. These are thus summed up by Ray : — " Spon-
giarum multiplex usus est : nimirum 1. ad fomenta ; multo
enim diutius decoctoriun quibus membra fovenda sunt calo-
rem retinent, quam panni aut linteamina : 2. ad sanguinem ali-
umve liquorem imbibendum et exsiccandum, quo Anatomicis,
Chinirgis, Mechanicis utiles sunt. 3. Ad ulcera cava, nondum
* For an account of Mr Bowerbank's discoveries on tlie structure of
recent sponges, see tlie Microscopic Journal, i, p. 8 ; and the Annals of
Nat. History, va. p. 72. and 129.
SPONGIA. 167
perfecte sanata, dilatanda et quamdiu opus est aperta te lenda,
et ad putrida exsiccaiida. Ustarum cinere veteres usi sunt ad
ocularia medicamenta, et ubi quid extergere opus est. Plerique
recentiores Medici iisdem Spongige cineribus ex vino albo pro-
pinatis utuntur in cura bronchoceles, toto unius Luna? curriculo>
certissima experientia." Hist. Plant, i. p. 81.
1. S. PULCHELLA, amo7'phous, consisting of Jinely reti-
culated shnple fibres ; the meshes quadrangular^ minute ; the
fibre smooth and without spicula.
Plate XIX. Fig. 1. 2.
Spongia pulchella, Sowerbi/fDrit. Misc. 87, pi. 43. Jamesun in
Wern. Mem. i. 562. Turt. Brit. Faun. 208. Montagu in
Wern. Mem. ii. 109. Gray, Brit. Plants, i. 359. Flem. Brit.
Anim. 524. Tenipleton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 471. Bellamifs
S. Devon, 268.
Hub. Ireland, 3Ir Brown. North Wales, Rev. H. Davies.
On the shores of several of the Western isles of Scotland,
Jameson. Hartlepool, J. Hogg. Coast of Berwickshire. G.
J. Found on the shore near Carrickfergus, Templeton. Ply-
mouth, J. C. Bellamy. /^
Sponge generally arising from a circumscribed or narrow
base, massive, very irregular and variable in its shape, but most-
ly conformed into sinuous crests and ridges, " although some-
times approaching to a fan-shape, and sometimes rather palmate
or digitate," yoUowish-brown, light and elastic, delicately reti-
culate. The principal fibres composing the network have a
longitudinal and parallel course, running from the base or centre
to the circumference, but these are connected with numerous cross
threads so as to form small quadrangular or rarely pentagonal
meshes : the fibres smooth, pellucid and tubular, capillary or a
little swollen at the points of inosculation. Vents scattered,
small, even with the surface, and hence, in some specimens, in-
168 BRITISH SPONGES:
conspicuous. This sponge is to some degree transparent, so
that by holding it up to the Ught the parallel direction of the
centrifugal fibres can be readily seen. When the gelatinous
matter is entirely washed out, the sponge is soft and elastic, but
if any of the gelatine remains the dried specimen is more or
less rigid.
2. S. LIMB ATA, amorphous, usually lohed, JU)ro-reticular,
the meshes rather large ; the fibre smooth and full of minute
spicula, which are needle-shaped and double-pointed.
Plate XIX. Fig. 3, 4, 5.
Spongia limbata, Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. Ill, pi. 15, fig. 2, 3.
Gray, Brit. PI. i. 360. Flem. Brit. Anim. 526.
Spongia lobata, Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 85, pi. 9, fig. 1. Flem.
Brit. Anim. 526.
Tupha lobata, Gray, Brit. PI. i. 356.
Hah. Parasitical on corallines and sea-weeds, and sometimes
found incrusting the under surface of loose stones, between tide-
marks. " Coast of Devon, surrounding the smaller stalk of
some fucus, very rare," Montagu. Plymouth harbour, J. C.
Bellamy. Berwic^ bay, G. J. Coast of Ireland, William
Thompson. Dublin bay, A. H. Hassall. In a pool two miles
from Roundstone, Connemara, attached to Fucus serratus, Wil-
liam 3PColla.
Sponge growing in small subglobular or irregularly lobulat-
ed masses, from the size of a filbert to that of a walnut, of the
usual yellow-brown colour of sponges, fibro-reticulated, elastic,
and pervious to light, the meshes roundish or pentagonal, and
so large as to be readily distinguished with the naked eye. The
fibre is rather coarse, pellucid, smooth, very unequal, containing
spicula, which are not visible excepting with a high magnifier.
" Tlie fibre is stouter than that of Spongia pulchella, and it an-
astomoses more frequently, and is exceedingly full of minute
SPONGIA. 169
double-pointed needle-shaped spicula, very little curved, and
uniform in size : they are mostly disposed in lines agreeing with
the axis of the fibre, but occasionally cross each other at right
angles, especially where a branch is given off. I did not detect
a vascular coat on any part of the fibre." Bowerhank. In small
specimens there is seldom more than a single osculvun placed to
one side and level with the surface ; but in larger specimens
there is an osculum to every lobe.
On the under surface of stones the growth of the sponge is
modified by its untoward position, and it then forms a loosely
reticulated spongy crust, from the eighth to about a quarter of
an inch in thickness, perforated with several fecal orifices which
remain always level with the surface.
Montagu's description of the species is as follows : " This
sponge is firm and elastic ; but the pores formed by the anasto-
mosing fibres are considerably large : it is whitish when divid-
ed, and its lace-like appearance, when examined by a lens, ren-
ders it a beautiful object : the pores or interstices of the fibres
are circular, and it frequently happens that numerous small pores
surround a large one : and in most cases the intervals between
the larger are filled up with smaller pores. The fibres are smooth,
and destitute of any fimbriae or detached unconnected parts."
After a comparison of many specimens, I have been brought
to believe that the Spongia limbata and S. lobata of Montagu
are the same species, — the one in its primary, the other in its
old and mature condition. The latter he thus describes ; —
" With clustered ovate divarications^ — " The texture of this
sponge is rather more coarse than that of oculata ; the lobes
vary from ovate to oblong, and originate from an ill-defined
stalk in an irregular manner ; they are nearly connected, some-
times inosculate, and are furnished with a few prominent pores
without order. Colour yellowish-brown ; height two inches. —
Devou coast ; rare,"
170 BRITISH SPONGES:
Mr M'Colla is of opinion that S. limbata is an annual spe-
cies, since he found it in November, and there was no appear-
ance of it during the summer months. Its term of existence
can, at all events, not exceed that of the Fucus it grows upon,
and this is usually an annual.
3. S. ? L^viGATA, " soft, compressible, and elastic ; tex-
ture extremely Jine and reticidated."
Spongia laevigata, Montagu in Wem. Mem. ii. 95, pi. 16, fig. 4.
Flem. Br. Anini. 526.
Scypha lcE\'igata, Gray, Br. PI. i. 358.
Hah. Coast of Devon ? very rare, Montagu.
." This is the most delicate of all the soft British sponges ;
when compared with either oculata or dichotoma, their texture
is extremely coarse ; by the naked eye, the surface appears nearly
smooth, or finely frosted ; when examined with the double lens
of a megalascope, the surface is found to be minutely and ele-
gantly reticulated, and of a cottony softness, but the fibres are
infinitely finer than common cotton. Perhaps the texture in fine-
ness would be more aptly compared to the interior spongy part
of some species of puflf-ball, (Lycoperdon.)
" The only small piece of this sponge that has come under
observation is tubular throughout ; whether this is its natural
habit, or the consequence of being a parasitical species that sur-
rounds the stalks of fuci, or other marine plants, has not been
discovered ; but it is observable, that the central fibres radiate
to the circumference ; the summit, however, is rounded and per-
fect, like the finish of an independent species." Montagu.
A Spongia prolifera is enumerated among the sponges
of the Firth of Forth by Dr Grant, (Edin. Phil. Journ. xiv.
116,) but he has given no description of it. The sponge refer-
red, (erroneously as I believe,) by Templeton to the *S'. prolifera
of Ellis and Solander, and dredged apparently in Belfast Lough,
SPONGIA.
171
(Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. p. 472,) had undoubtedly been thrown out
of some vessel, as Mr Templeton himself suspected ; and an
examination of the genuine specimen has satisfied me that the
suspicion was well-founded.
Fig. 16.
Spongia : structure of.
" Nam, cum Natura (ut dici solet) non facial saltus, neque ab extremo
ad extremum transeat nisi per medium, inter superiores et inferiores, re-
rum ordines nonnuUas mediae et ambiguae conditionis producere solet,
quae de utroque participent, et utrosque velut connectant, ut ad utrum
pertineant omnino incertum sit." — J. Raius.
172 BRITISH SPONGES:
5. GRANTIA, Fleming.
SpongijB pars, Lin. Laji. Lamour — Scyjihae pars, Gray, Brit
PL i. 357 — Scyphiae pars, Schweig. Handb. 422. — Grantia,
Flem. Brit. An. 524. — Leucalia, Grant in Edin. Encyclop.
xviii. 844 — Leuconia, Grant, Outl. Comp. Anat. 7 Calci-
spongia, Blainv. Man. 330.
Character. Sponge Jirmhh and inelastic, usually
white, multiform, of a close texture hut porous, and com-
posed of calcareous spicula compacted in a gelatinous base :
spicula simple and stellated : oscula always distinct. Ma-
rine.
It has been already mentioned that Dr Grant was the first
naturalist who ascertained that the, spicula, which enter so co-
piously into the composition of sponges, were in some of them
of a siliceous nature, and in others formed of carbonate of lime.
To the latter group, the Rev. Dr Fleming, in 1828, gave the
name of Grantia, with the view of commemorating the ser-
vices of that gentleman in elucidating the physiology of the fa-
mily. Dr Grant subsequently proposed to substitute " Leuca-
lia" in lieu of the first denomination, which Blainville changed
to " Calcispongia," that it might harmonize with his peculiar no-
tions of the consistencies of nomenclature. Perpaps Dr Grant
GRANTIA. 173
was actuatied in making his alteration by regard to a canon
which some have laid down, — that generic names commemo-
rative of naturalists ought to be confined to botany ; but since
there appears no sufficient reason for such a restriction, and
since the canon has been too frequently violated to be now kept
in integrity, e. g. Cuvieria : Mulleria : Montagua : Cavolina :
Skenia : Leacia : Elfortia : Rissoa : Peronia, &c. See. I willingly
here adopt the original name of the genus, the more so as the la-
bovirs of Dr Grant in various departments of zoology, and more
especially as a professor of the science in the University Col-
lege of London, claim for him the highest recompense which
the cultivators of the same field have to bestow.
The essential character of the genus is the existence of spi-
cula of carbonate of lime in the texture of the sponge, and the
fact is readily ascertained by the efiervescence which ensues on
its immersion into a dilute acid. These spicula are crystalline,
exceedingly numerous, partly triradiate and partly imdivided,
— the triradiate chiefly bounding the pores and orifices, while
the curved ends of the others hang over the exterior entrances
of the pores to protect them. When they are all entirely re-
moved by the aid of an acid, the sponge becomes very soft and
flexible, but still retains its original form and appeai'ance ; and
if now examined with a microscope the residuum will be found
a gelatinous membrane apparently of vuiiform and homogeneous
composition throughout, without any pores or interstices, but
with the cavities on the inner surface the same as in the per-
fect sponge. The Grantiai differ, therefore, from most other
sponges in their base not being fibrous, and in their pores being
rather of the nature of perforations than of meshes left by the
interlacing of threads. From the number of their spicula, and
their calcareous quality, it happens also that the Grantia) are
more compact and close in texture than other sponges, and of a
174 BRITISH SPONGES:
whiter colour ; but, as in other spoiig-es, the external surface is
always of a closer texture than the inner.
The Grantiaa are properly littoral, growing on, or hanging
from, rocks, sea-weeds, shell-fish and corallines, between tide
marks, or in shallow water within the lowest ebb. In conse-
quence of this their position, the circulation of water through
their body has periodical interruptions, and it is said to be more
languid than in some siliceous sponges inhabiting similar loca-
lities. Of its reality, Dr Grant's authority leaves no doubt,
but its existence is less easily demonstrable than has been as-
serted. I have in vain made repeated experiments at all sea-
sons to see it. I have been equally unsuccessful in discovering
anything like ova or gemmules in this genus ; nor is there any
difference in the structure and composition of the sponge at any
period of growth that is appreciable.
* Tubular.
1. G. COMPRESS A, compressed^ leaf-like^ with terminal
and lateral orifices ; surface even and porous ; the spicula
triradiate and clavate.
Plate XX. Pig. 1.
Spongia compressa, Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 448. Turt. Gmel. iv.
661. Sosc, Vers, ill. 176. Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 562.
Lamour. Cor. Flex. 48. Corall. 168. Grant in Edin. New
Phil. Joiirn. i. 166 ; and ii. 122, 127, pi. ii. fig. 11, 12, 13, and
23 ; copied in Blainv. Atlas, pi. 94.
Spongia foliacea, Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 92, pi. 12. Temple-
ton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 471.
Scypha foliacea, Gray, Brit. PI. i. 358.
Grantia compressa, Flem. Br. Anim. 524. Johnston in Trans.
Newc. Soc. ii. 270. Bellamy's South Devon, 268. Hassall in
Ann. Nat. Hist. m'\. 174.
Leuconia compressa, Grant's Out. Comp. Anat. p. 7, fig. 3.
La Calceponge comprimee, Blainv. Actinol. 531 .
GRANTIA. 175
Hab. On the sides of rocks and on sea-weeds near low
water-mark. Bressay Sound, Shetland, Jameson. At Daw-
lish in Devonshire, Montagu. Near Tynemouth, not very
plentiful, Miss Forster. From the circumstance of its having
escaped the notice of Ellis, this species may possibly be rare on
om- southern coasts, but it grows in abimdance on those of
Scotland, G. J. Found not uncommonly in Ireland, accord-
ing to Mr Templeton, and I have seen many specimens from
various localities.
Sponge pendant by a narrow base, sometimes 1^ inch in
height, and 2 inches in extreme breadth, usually about half
this size, oval or somewhat triangular or pentagonal, greatly
compressed, of a straw colour, becoming grejish in drying, the
texture close, the outer surface even and smooth, closely punc-
tured, the inner reticulated with larger pores. It is hollow, and
has at the top of small specimens, and at every projecting
angle of larger ones, a circular vent of considerable size with a
plain rim. When left uncovered by the retreat of the tide the
sides of the sponge are in contact, and the individuals hang
like small white leaves from the surface of the rocks ; " but,
when suspended for a short time in pure sea water, their pa-
rietes separate, and they become like small distended bags pour-
ing forth a continued and obvious current." Grant. — " The
external surface is crowded with numerous spicula, thick and
bent at one end, tapering to the other ; the pores on the inner
surface are larger, and the spicula triradiated ; besides these
two well-marked forms of spicula, there are other linear, point-
ed, and of unequal lengths." Fleming.
Spongia compressa and *S'. foliacea of Esper have neither
of them any relationship to Grantia compressa.
The Spongia urceolus oi MuUer, Zool. Dan. iv. 42, tab.
137, fig. 3, is probably a variety of the species with a single
terminal aperture.
176 BRITISH SPONGES:
2. G. LACUNOSA, sponge Jlahellate, entire, the sides la-
cunose ; spicula all triradiate.
Plate XX. Fig. 2, 3.
Grantia lacunosa, Bean MSS.
Hah. On rocks at low-water near Scarborough, very rare,
Mr Bean.
Sponge half an inch in height, flabellate, pedicled, entire or
undivided, white, greatly compressed, the sides perforated with
numerous irregularly elliptical holes or vents, so as to give a
lacunose appearance to the dried specimen : structure compact,
friable when dry ; spicula all triradiate. The remarkable cha-
racter afforded by the numerous large holes in the sides, so un-
like the fecal orifices of the other species, distinguishes this at
once, and removes the suspicion of its being a variety of any
other.
3. G. CI LI ATA, sponge elliptical or tid)idar, rough and
villous, the vent terminal and surrounded with a fringe of
erect asbestine spicula.
Plate XX. Fig. 4, 5. Plate XXI. Fig. 6, 7.
Spongia ciliata, Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 448. Turt. Gmel. iv. 657.
Base, Vers, iii. 169. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 55. Corall. 151.
Spongia coronata, Ellis and Solland. Zooph. 190, pi. 58, iig. 8, 9,
copied in Esper. Spong. tab. 61, fig. 5, 6. Turt. Gmel. iv.
657. Turt.Bni. Faun. 208. Stew. Elem. ii. 433. Bosc,
Vers, iii. 169. Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 88. Lamour. Cor.
Flex. 54. Corall. 171. Lavi. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 370. 2de edit.
ii. 560. Schweifj. Beobacht. 80, tab. 5, fig. 47. opt. 1 Grant in
Edin. New Pbil. Journ. i. 170; ii. 122, pL 2, fig. 17, 18, copied
in Blainv. Atlas, pi. 94, fig. 17, 18.
Spongia panicea, Esper. Spong. tab. 18, fig. 1, 2.
Scypha coronata, Gray, Brit. Plants, i. 357.
Grantia coronata, //assa// in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. 174.
Grantia ciliata, Flein, Brit. Auini. 325. Johnston in Trans. Newc.
GRANTIA. 177
Soc. ii. 271. Bellamy's South Devon, 269. Thompson in Ann.
Nat. Hist. V. 254.
La Calceponge cilee, Blainv. Actinolog. 531.
Hab. Parasitical on the lesser Fuci and Confervae, especial-
ly on the Delesserise and Ceramia. In the harbour of Ems-
worth, Ellis. " Not uncommon on many parts of the British
coast ; I have found it in the most southern extremity, and have
been favoured with it from Zetland by Mr Fleming," Montagu.
Isle of Man, Edw. Forbes. From the number of specimens
sent me by Mr Wm. Thompson of Belfast, and Mr M^Culla,
from various localities, I conclude it to be conmion on the Irish
coast.
Sponge hollow, cylindrical or ovate or elliptical, often curv-
ed and narrowed at the base, rough and hirsute with the pro-
jecting spicula, compact and unporous ; the vent terminal, ge-
nerally constricted, and encircled with a fence of long asbestine,
usually connivent, spicula. It varies from a line to fully two
inches in height. " The surface is closely covered with linear-
pointed spicula, having a terminal direction ; in the substance
of the sponge, besides these Unear, there are other triradiated
spicula. The internal surface is full of irregularly-shaped
pores." Fleming. " It should be remarked, that the specific
character of being ' surroimded at top by a crown of spines,' is
rarely identified ; but the spicula that cover all other parts,
form a lasting character. It is generally of a yellowish colour,
sometimes of a shining silvery white ; and this we may conceive
is its true colour, could all adventitious matter be removed."
Montagu,
This species, in general so well-marked, is occasionally as
deceptive as any of its congeners. In the normal state, the
sponge is elliptical, white, with a granular or muricated villous
surface and a narrow ciliated vent, (Woodcut, Fig. 1 ) ; but in
the very large variety, from the coast of the Isle of Man, (Plate
178 BRITISH SPONGES:
XX. Fig. 4), the surface is less distinctly muricated and more
villous, while the oral spicula are comparatively short. To this
variety the Sp. panicea of Esper belongs. Another variety is
more elongated or cylindrical in shape, of an earthy colour, soft
texture, strongly muricated and scarcely villous, while there are
no prolonged spicula around the orifice (Plate XXI. Fig. 6, 7.)
In this condition I have found it on the under surface of rocks
near low-water mark, and to the peculiarity of its site, the mo-
dification of its characters is attributable. It appears to be iden-
tical with the Spongia fistulosa of Delle Chiaie, Anim. s.
vert. Nap. iii. p. 113, tav. 37, fig. 14, 15.
When the sponge is allowed to decompose in water so far that
the external spicula can be easily rubbed away, it will be seen
that the granulations on the surface are arranged in regular se-
ries after the fashion of the scales on a fir-cone. The granules
are equal and papillous, looking all towards the orifice. The
simple spicula are very imequal in size, more or less curved, li-
near but acute at both ends, which are alike : these, however,
are generally broken away so that the spicula appear to be
truncate. The triradiate spicula are not less variable in size,
and frequently one of the prongs is considerably longer than the
other two.
4. G. BOTRYOiDES, clustered, very irregularly branch-
ed, the branches ovate or cylindrical, tubular, with a ter-
minal plain orifice; spicula triradiate.
Plate XXI. Fig. 1—5.
Spongia botyroides, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 190, pi. 58, fig- 1
— 4, copied in Esper Spong. tab. 61, fig. 1 — 4. Turt. Gmel. iv.
660. Turt. Brit. Faun. 209. Stew. Elem. ii. 434. Bosc, Vers^
iii. 173. Montagu in Wem. Mem. ii. 89. Lamour. Cor, Flex.
81. Corall. 184. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 382. 2de edit. ii.
573. Tempkton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 471.
GRANTIA. 179
Sp. complicata, Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 97, pi. 9. fig. 2, 3.
Gray, Brit. PI. i. 358. Grant in Edin. New Phil. Journ. i. 1 69.
Spongia confervicola, Templetoii in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 470, fig. 67.
Scypha botryoides, Gray, Brit. PI. i. 357.
Grantia botryoides, Flem- Brit Anim. 525. Johnston in Trans.
Newc. Soc. ii. 270. Bellamy's S. Devon, 268.
Caleispongia botryoides, JBlainv. Actinol. 531.
Hab. On the under surface of stones and, more abundantly,
on the smaller Fuci and Confervae, between tide-marks : very
common on the shores of Ireland, Scotland, and the north of
England, but as Montagu had never gathered it, the presump-
tion is that it is rare in the south. Ellis's specimen was got
" in the harbour near Emsworth, between Sussex and Hamp-
shire."
Sponge very variously, but always irregularly branched, de-
licate, white, of a close texture, without visible pores on the
surface, which, under the magnifier, appears somewhat villous ;
the orifices teraiinal, even and unarmed. It varies infinitely in
its mode of ramification : the branches are sometimes short,
ovate and clustered, or spreading and laid close to the body on
which they grow : at other times they are about an inch in
height, erect, cylindrical and tubular ; sometimes they are
flattish and fimbriated or almost pinnate, and in other speci-
mens the branches inosculate in an irregular manner ; but the
most abnormal of its states is when it grows on the under sur-
face of aflat stone, for then it creeps and ramifies in slender fili-
form branches like a conferva, inosculating irregularly, and
throwing up at intervals single tubular eUiptical processes. It
reminds one, in this state, of the analogous growth of some
agarics which, when prevented by the pressure of any super-
incumbent body from growing in their usual manner, will ger-
minate and evolve a white fcatheiy. byssus-like production,
which some botanists have described under the name of Iliman-
tia. All the spicula are triradiate, the forks acutely pointed.
180 BRITISH SPONGES:
Mr Montagu has endeavoured to draw a distinction between
his Sp. complicata and the Sp. botryoides of Ellis, — the spicula
of the former being, he says, not a quarter so large as those
belonging to the latter. But Montagu acknowledges that he
had never seen a specimen of Ellis's Sp. botryoides, and its
presumed spicula, sent to him by Mr Boys, were probably
those of Gi'antia compressa. And no argument derived from
a diversity in habit between his specimens and those figured by
Ellis, can be relied upon, as an examination of a very extensive
series of specimens has fully satisfied us.
5. G. PULVEnuLENTA, ^^ ovate^ thick, pulveTuUnti viU
lous."
Spongia ananas, var. Morifagu in Wem. Mem. ii. 97, pi. 16, fig. 3. *
Sp. pulverulenta, Grant in Edin. New PLil. Journ. i. 170.
Scypha ovata, Gray, Brit. PI. i. 358.
Grantia pulverulenta, Flem. Br. Anim. 525. JBellami/'s S. Devon,
269.
Spongia inflata, Delia Chiaie, Anim. s. Vert. Nap. iii. p. 114, tav.
37, fig. 16, 17.
Hah. On corallines, rare. Devon coast, Montagu. Zetland,
attached to Sertularia cupressina, Fleming.
Sponge about the eighth of an inch in height, attached by a
narrow base, ovate, white, the surface villous with the promi-
nent spicula which pomt upwards, the ox-ifice tenninal, contract-
ed and encircled with a close fringe of erect spicula of a sil-
very white colour. The spicula are of two kinds : " one of
these forms is a triradiate spiculum with long and very slender
i-ays diverging at equal angles ; the other is a very long straight
needle-shaped spiculum, pointed acutely at one end, and obtuse
at the other." Grant.
Montagu suspects that this is his Spongia ananas, Wern.
Mem. ii. 96, pi. 16, fig. 1, 2, " in a more perfect state," but
Dr Fleming appears to consider them distinct. The following
GRANTIA. 181
is Montagu's description of the Sp. ananas : " This elegant
minute sponge is nearly allied to coronata, but is very different
in shape and texture ; the surface is not covered with spicules
as in that species, but is apparently vesicular or scaly, and when
magnified, somewhat resembles an extremely fine Millepora,
except that no openings or pores are visible, nor is it of the
same consistence."
6. G. FiSTULosA, simple and compressed, the surface
villose, the vent terminal and naked ; spicula triradiate, very
unequal.
Plate XX. Fig. 7.
Hah. Coast of Ireland. Portaferry, Wm. Tliompson.
Sponge forming a long simple tube, perhaps subcylindrical
when recent, three or four inches in height, and about half an inch
in diameter, attenuated at the base, with a wide even vent at the
opposite truncate extremity ; the surface not porous nor muricat-
ed but shortly villose ; the walls imperfectly cellular : spicula tri-
radiate, very unequal in size, the rays diverging also at various
angles, often very long and evenflexuous. Some of the spicula are
remarkable for their great size ; and there appears to be inter-
mixed with these compound sort a simple one shaped like a
needle, but these may be merely rays of the other broken away
near the base.
The specimens I have seen have attached to their base the
stalk of some slender fucus which grows usually near low-water
mark. In a dried state the sponge is of a whitish colour and
friable.
** Crustaceous.
6. G. NiVEA, of a close texture, pure white, the fecal
orifices small and level ivith the surface ; spicula triradiate
and quadriradiate.
182 BRITISH SPONGES:
Plate XXI. Fig. 8.
Spongia nivea, Grant in Edin. Phil. Journ. xiv. 339 ; and in Ediri.
New Phil. Journ. i. 168; and ii. 139, pi. I, fig. 14—16, copied
in Blainv. Actinol. pi. 94.
Grantia nivea, Flem. Brit. Anim. 525.
Calcispongia nivea, £/a«wy. Actinol. 531.
Hub. On the under surface of sheltered rocks at Prestonpans
Bay, during the ebb of stream tides, Dr Grant. On the
Northumberland coast at Dunstanborough castle, Mr Robert
Embletun. At Scarborough, BIr Bean.
Sponge incrusting, spreading irregularly to the extent of one
or two inches in diameter, from one to two lines thick, snow-
white, of a light close texture, the surface shortly villose, even
or unequally protuberant or crested and waved, the under side
imperfectly cellular ; fecal orifices scattered, small, round with
a plain margin and level with the surface : the whole sponge
composed of spicula irregularly compacted, the triradiate very
numerous and of various sizes, some being minute and others so
large as to be visible by the naked eye. " The second form of
spiculum in the S. nivea is the most remarkable, though the
rarest ; it consists of a straight line, with two opposite lateral
projections in its middle, which are generally a little curved.
When these lateral processes are large and straight, it becomes
a regular quadriradiate spiculum, but they are generally much
shorter than the other two rays ; and when they are placed
near one extremity of the spiculum, it appears under the micro-
scope like a small dagger with a handle. The quadi-iradiate spi-
cula are generally very minute, and in niunber about one to a
himdred of the triradiate. The third kind of spiculum in this
species is a very minute straight equally thick spiculum, obtuse
at both ends, and generally about the fiftieth of a line in length ;
this form is very abundant, and may possibly be derived from
the broken rays of very small triradiate spicula, as in the com-
GRANTIA. 183
pressa. These three kinds of spicula are likewise calcareous,
and dissolve with rapid effervescence on being touched with di-
luted nitric acid. On looking closely into the surface of the ^S*.
nivea, with a single lens, we perceive that the large triradiate
spicula lie parallel with the surface, and contribute to form and
protect the pores." Grant.
Mr M'CoUa has furnished me with a variety from the Irish
coast that merits to be distinguished. The sponge rises up in
compressed sinuous leaf-like lobes, which are united together so
as to form a lobulated crust nearly an inch in thickness, with a
circular osculum on every projecting angle. (Plate XX. Fig. 6.)
Were we to imagine that a cluster of Grantia compressa had
grown so close as to press against each other, and the various
specimens to have coalesced into one mass, we would have a
correct idea of this variety. That it is, however, no variety of
Gr. compressa is proved by the difference of its texture, as well
as by the form of the spicula.
7. G. CORIACEA, inci'usting ; texture cancellated, fihro-
Jleshy ; the sjncula minute, triradiate.
Plate XXI. Fig. 9.
Spongia coriacea. Montagu in Wern. Mem. ii. 1 IG. Gray, Brit.
PI. i. 361. Flem. Brit. Anim. 526.
Grantia multicavata, Bean, MSS.
Hah. On rocks between tide-marks. Scarborough, Mr Bean.
Berwick Bay, G. J. Dublin Bay, A. H. Hassall.
Sponge incrusting, spreading irregularly, from one-eighth to
one-fourth ofan inch thick, dirty bluish gray or white when recent,
changing to yellowish-brown when dried or immersed in fresh-
water, of a fibro-cameous substance, soft and easily torn in any
direction, not elastic ; surface plain or uneven, cancellated, the
meshes or pores large, roundish, and separated by a thick line :
184
BRITISH SPONGES:
there are no fecal orifices : interior fibrous and reticulated like
the surface : spicula numerous, minute, calcareous, all of them
triradiate, brittle, the rays pointed, not projecting at the surface.
This sponge has a fleshy feel and tear, and a somewhat coria-
ceous appearance ; and by the size of its pores and its conse-
quent cancellated structure, difiers remarkably from every other
species of the genus.
The following is Montagii's description of his Spongia coria-
cea. It answers well to the specimens before me, but the agree-
ment is perhaps not close enough to remove all doubt of the
identity of his species with mine. " The fibres that constitute
this sponge," he says, " are composed of very fine spiculae, and are
intersected with numerous large pores and cavities, giving the
appearance of singed leather, or a piece of dark-coloured worm-
eaten wood in a very decayed state. One side is rather smooth,
with circular depressions or cavities. The only specimen that
has occurred is depressed, four inches in length, and above two
in breadth."
Fw: 17.
Ssicui.A OF Grantia.
DUSEIDEIA. 183
6. DUSEIDEIA,* Johnston.
Character. — Sponge multiform, sessiUi imperfectly
cellular, composed of a gelatinous membrane or basis con-
taining or frosted with amorphous particles of sand.
Proceeding on the principles adopted by Dr Fleming in
the division of this family, I find it necessary to form a new
genus with the sponges that possess the above character ; and
this I have named Duseideia because of its want of beauty and
attraction, t These sponges are evidently of a lower grade
in organization than the other genera. Their basis is a soft
gelatinous unfigured membrane becoming friable when dried,
and in which is imbedded or crusted a sort of gravel that seems
to be extraneous ; for although its particles are tolerably uniform
in size, and more or less perfectly cubical, yet, from their un-
crystalline state, their irregular aggregation, and their composi-
tion, which is neither siliceous nor calcareous, we conclude that
they are not the products of any process of secretion, or in-
» J'v9. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix.
469. Blainv. Actinol. 547, pi. 96, fig. 3, 3 a. Kraiiss, Corall.
et Zoophyt. der Sudsee, 14. Delle Chiaie, Anim. s. vert. Nap.
iv. 148. Schweig. Handb. 437. J. B. Harvey in Charles-
worth's Mag. Nat. Hist. ii. 512. Bellamy's S. Devon, 267.
Corallina laxa. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 328 : 2de edit. ii. 514.
Corallina Calvadosii ? Lamour. Cor. Flex. 290. Corall. 131.
Lamour. Soland. Zooph. 25. Delle Chiaie, Anim. s. Vert. Nap.
iv. 149.
Primary or Crustaceans State.
Corallina membranacea, Esper Corall. tab. 12.
Millepora miniacea, Esper Millep tab. 17. Fig. 1 — 4.
Millepora fucorum, Esper Millep. tab. 23, fig. 1 — 4.
Melobesia pustulata et M. farinosa, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 315, pi.
12, fig. 2, 3. Corall. 142, pi. 12, fig. 2, 3.
Melobesia membranacea, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 315.. Corall. 142.
Schweig. Handb. 4.38.
Corallium lichenoides, Ellis in Phil. Trans. Ivii. 419, pi. 17, fig.
9-11.
Millepora lichenoides. Borl. Cornw. 239, pi. 24, fig. 2, 3, 5. So'
land. Zooph. 131, pi. 23, fig. 10-12. Flem. Brit. Anim. 528.
Hassall in Ann. Nat. Hist. Nov. 1840, 174 and 236. Bellamy's
S. Devon, 269.
Chalky coral, shaped like liverwort, Ellis, Corall. 76, no. 2, pi. 27,
Fig. d, D.
Millepora alga, Turt. Gmel. iv. 639. Turt. Brit. Faun. 205.
Stew. Elem. ii. 428. Bosc, Vers, ii. 344.
Millepora foliacea, Risso, L'Europ. Merid. v. 350.
Corallina auricularijrformis, Sowerhy, Brit. Misc. 119, pi. 50-
Turt. Brit. Faun. 211.
Millepora polymorpha, Johnston in Trans. New. Soc. ii. 271.
Nullipora lichenoides, Templeton in Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. ix.
470.
218 BRITISH CORALLINES:
Hab. On rocks and shells between tide-marks, profusely on
every part of the British coast.
Coralline affixed by a spreading calcareous base, from one to
four inches in height, of a dull purplish colour when recent,
bushy, the primary branches irregular, erect, the secondary plu-
mose, pinnate or bipinnate ; joints cylindrical or wedge-shap-
ed and somewhat compressed, sometimes twice as long as their
diameter, and sometimes not more than equal to it, smooth or
blistered ; the shoots sprout from each shoulder of the joints,
and the young shoots have usually long, slender, cylindrical
joints, while those which terminate the branches are either tip-
ped with a little white globular or ovoid tubercular enlargement,
or with a row of little white tubercles, arranged in a palmate
fashion.
This description has been derived from what seem to be nor-
mal specimens taken from pools of clear water in the rocks of
om' shore, whose sides they adorn with their tufted fringes, hang-
ing over each other, in the same plumy manner that the Hypna
do over the shelving banks of our deans. But on every shore,
specimens of the coralline may be gathered which deviate so
much from the normal character, and from each other, as to
render a general description almost nugatory. " Pro aetate at-
que vigore insigniter, et crassitie et elegantia ac fonna, variat
hsec corallina, unde multiplicatae Ellisii species, quas interme-
dii gradus, in eademque ssepe stripe structuree extrema occur-
rentia conjungunt." Pallas.
The branches are sometimes partially studded over with smooth
conoid tubercles, either sessile or raised on a cylindrical pedi-
cle. The extremities of the branches are usually terminated
with analogous tubercles in the spring season, and from these,
after they had been steeped in vinegar, which rendered the whole
soft, Ellis squeezed out " little twisted figures," which he has
figured with his usual accuracv. I found these capsules, as I
CORALLINA. -219
believe them to be, coloured like the coralline itself. After
they have escaped naturally, the tubercles exhibit a small open-
ing on their top and become hollow. I have in vain sought for
these seminiferous capsules in the winter months.
The Corallina officinalis, after death, or after being detached
and cast on shore, speedily loses its claret colour, fades to a pale
pink, and in a few days becomes entirely white. These changes
take place with greater rapidity when the specimen is immersed
in fresh water, for then the depth of its colour becomes almost
instantly weakened. It retains the colour unchanged, on the
contrary, in a weak acid, which, however, soon removes the cal-
careous crust, and then the specimen bears a close resemblance
to some of the articulated Fuci. When the coralline is now ex-
amined, it is found that the form and integrity of the specimen
have remained unaltered. The axis exhibits the same articu-
lated appearance as the crust had done, but the joints are merely
constrictions in its calibre, deprived of the colouring matter of
the internodes, and do not interrupt its continuity. These stric-
tured portions are decidedly fibrous, the fibres parallel and nu-
merous, but which become obscure or lose themselves in the in-
ternodes. These may be also fibrous, but the structure is not
easily made out. Under a magnifier, they appear to be solid,
and to be composed of cells exhibiting an areolar or netted struc-
ture, the interstices filled more or less with^minute granules, and
a set of vessels runs through it, anastomosing on the apices of
the extreme joints. This stnicture is best seen when the spe-
cimen has been allowed to dry on a plate of glass ; but it must
be confessed that the appearances are by no means uniform.
The figure which I have given in PI. XXII. Fig. 6, represents
very exactly what was seen in one carefully prepared specimen.
" When a small living branch of the Corallina officinalis is
placed under the microscope with sea-water, wo observe the
rounded extremity of each of the last digitations tipt with a thin
220 BRITISH CORALLINES:
layer of a soft, transparent, colourless matter ; this transparent
covering is spread completely over the free ends of all the
branches, is thickest in the centre, and tapers gradually to the
sides, where no trace of it is seen ; on the surface of this matter
we can distinguish very minute tubercles or papillae, likewise
transparent, but which do not appear to have any motion. I
have not observed this on any other part of the coralline ; and,
as it appears to have escaped notice, and may possibly have
some connection with the mode of growth of a substance whose
nature is still perfectly unknown, I have thought it worthy of
being suggested to the attention of zoologists." Dr Grant.
Cor. officinalis appears first in the guise of a thin, circular,
calcareous patch of a purplish colour, and in this state is com-
mon on almost every object that grows between tide-marks.
When developing on the leaves of Zostera, or in other unfavour-
able sites, these patches are usually pulverulent and ill-coloured,
green or white, and never become large ; but, in suitable situ-
ations, they continue enlarging in concentric circles, each mark-
ed with a pale zone, until they ultimately cover a space of seve-
i-al inches in diameter. The resemblance which, in this condition,
the cnist has to some crustaceous fungi, more especially to the Po-
lyporous versicolor, is remarkably exact, and neither is it less
variable than the fungus in its growth, the variations depending
on the nature of the site from which it grows. If this is smooth
and even, the foliaceous coralline is entirely adnate and also
even, but if the surface of the site is uneven or knobbed, the
coralline assumes the same character. If it grows from the edge
of a rock, or on the frond of a narrow sea-weed, or from the
branch of the perfect coralline, the basal laminae spread beyond
in overlapping imbrications of considerable neatness and beauty :
they are semicircular, wavy, either smooth or studded with scat-
tered granules, and these granules may be either solid or perfo-
rated on the top. Such states of the coralline have been de-
CORALLINA. 221
scribed as Millepora lichenoides ; while its earlier states consti-
tute Lamouroux's various species of Melobesia.*
Mr J. B. Harvey says — " An intelligent friend, Mr Burnett,
lately directed my attention to the very beautiful white light
produced by holding pieces of C. officinalis close to the flame of
a candle." In making the experiment, the coralline must be
held close to the flame but not in it.
Cor. officinalis was once believed to possess very powerful
vermifuge properties. " Corallinee crassiusculae contrita? pulvis
in vino, lacte aut cassia exhibitus, pueris ad di'achmam dimidi-
am, adultioribus ad drachmam unam interaneorum veraies ene-
cat et expellit." Ray.
2. C. ELONGATA, the lateral shoots of the branches
slender and subidate, loith long cylindrical articulations.
Slender trailing English Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 48, pi. 24, fig. no. -3.
Corallina elongata, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 119. Tur t . Gmel. iv.
671. Turt. Br. Faun. 211. Stetv. Elem. ii. 4S9. Lamour. Cor.
Flex. 285. Corall. 128. Graij, Br. PI. i. 340. Bosc, Vers,
iii. 76. liisso, TEurope Merid. v. 322. Blainv. Actinol. 547.
Corallina longicaulis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 329 : 2de edit ii. 514.
Hah. Coast of Cornwall, Ellis. Jersey, A. H. Hassall.
Coralline attached by a crustaceous base, rising to the height
of three or four inches, very bushy, distinctly jointed, slender, the
ultimate branchlets almost hair-like : articulations of the stem
not much longer than their own diameter, somewhat compres-
sed and wedge-shaped, the shoulders often produced into a spi-
rule: articulations of the setiform pinnules cylindrical, from two to
six times their diameter in length, often terminated with a grani-
* Melobesia elegans of Bean is, however, a \evy different thing.
I believe it to be a polythalamous zoophyte, and that its right place will
be among the Polysomatia of Ehrcnberg. It is described and figured by
my friend A. H. Hassall in the Annals of Nat. History for Nov. 1840,
p. 173, pi. 7, fig. 2.
222 BRITISH CORALLINES:
ferous tubercle, which frequently becomes axillary by little se-
taceous branches shooting up from each side.
This coralline, Ellis says, " is remarkably slenderer, longer,
and smaller than the officinal coralline, and of a reddish or
purplish colour." Even after it had been reduced to a variety
of the C. officinalis by Linnaeus and Pallas, Ellis still retained
his opinion of their specifical distinctness, and after some hesi-
tation, and a comparison of specimens before me, I have been
induced to follow the same course, — principally from the great .
difference in their habit or general appearance, which a speci-
fic character cannot be made to express. The crust is smooth
and unporous. In its mode of producing granules the species
resembles the variety cristata of Jania rubens ; and it is curi-
ous to remark that the setiform side branchlets have the slender-
ness and long cylindrical articulations more peculiarly charac-
teristic of the genus Jania.
3. C. Squamata, ** the short lateral shoots of the branches
compressed and two-edged.'''
Upright English Coralline, with spear-like heads and flat joints,
Ellis, Corall. 49, No. 4, pi. 24, fig. c, C.
Corallina squamata, Ellis and Svland, Zooph. 117. Turt. Gmel.
iv. 671. Twri. Br. Faun. 211. 5iihcorneis spinuliferisque contexfce.
A. Fruticos.e, seu Caulescentes.
1. H. PALMATA, erecta compressa porosissima ' ramoso-
palmata ; ramulis digitiformibus apice furcatis subacutis ; oscu-
lis inordinatis subprominulis.
2. H. ocuLATA, ramosissima mollis tenera flavescens ; ra-
niis teretibus obtusis ; osculis sparsis ; spiculis breviusculis
acutis.
3. H. CERvicoRNis, ramosa tenax in latum expansa fere
dichotoma, ramis stupeis hispidulis ad axillas compressis, ex-
tremitatibus digitalis.
4. H. HispiDA, sparse ramosa, ramis cylindraceis erectis
longis gracilibus rigidis superficie hispidulis ; spiculis obtusius-
culis. [f ] *
5. H. RAMOSA, ramosa-palmata I'igida, ramis fibratis apici-
busnudis. [f ]
B. Polymorphs.
6. H. MoNTAGUii, mollis ramosissima basi incnistata ; ra-
mulis cylindraceis tortuose divaricatis subcoalescentibus inter-
dum forato-tubulosis ; spiculis linearibus acutis.
7. H. CoLUMB.E, amorpha bibula mollis ex ramis ditformi-
bus et rursum confluentibus facta ; osculis sparsis ; spiculis cur-
vatis acutis. [f]
* Species obelo f signatac niilii iioii visre sunt.
246 • SYNOPSIS.
8. H. PLUMOSA, amorpha molliuscula tenax porosa stupea e
fibris fimbriatis contexta.[f]
9. H. FRUTicosA, amorpha sessilis aspei-ata ; fibris laxissi-
mis inordinate connexis tenacibus crassiusculis, spiculis brevi-
bus et obtusis refertis. Siccata Cladonise rangiferinae (Li-
chenis) varietates hsec spongia quodammodo refert.
* * H. celluloso: — sen jxini spongioso similes.
A. FlGURAT^.
10. H. iNFUNDiBULiFORMis, foiTnam gerens infundibuli
molliuscula porosissima intus cellulosa ; spiculis acutis.
11. H. VENTILABRUM, infuudibuU vel flabelli formam ge-
rens stupea venis lignosis reticulatis porosissima pilis hirsutis
plus minusve obtecta ; spiculis longis linearibus varie curvatis.
B. Informes.
•}• HalichondricB vera, spiculis utrinque acutis.
12. H. siMULANS, subramosa difformis suberosa, ramis bre-
vibus nodosis, nodulis plerumque osculo magno perforatis ; spi-
culis brevibus curvatis acutis. Variatur infinite, — aliquando
etiam simplex et papillam fseminse lactantis referens.
13. H. ciNEREA, Crustacea tenera (desiccata fit pulverulen-
ta), superficie Isevi et plana osculis inconspicuis ; spiculis curva-
tis breviusculis acutis.
14. H. ALBESCENS, fibro-camosa pyriformis laevis, osculo
luiico subterminali ; spiculis brevibus subaequalibus lente curva-
tis utrinque acutis.
15. H. PANiCEA, Crustacea flavens late vagans figura va-
ria diversitati locorum accommodata, superficie nunc laevi nunc
papillis magnis perforatis asperata, cute subtilissime porosa ves-
tita, intus medullam panis referens ; osculis rotundis margina-
SYNOPSIS. -247
tis ; spiculis lente curvatis acutis fomia semper constantibus.
Proteus ipse non magis variatur, hinc subjunguntur definitiones
auctorum :
" Spongia amorpha albida mollis tenerrima, subtilissime po-
rosa." Pallas.
" Spongia plana compressa erecta mollis, poris prominulis su-
perne seriatim dispositis." Solander. — Haec definitio varieta-
tem 8 depinget.
" Spongia multiformis porosa, spinulis intertexta, tenerrima
mollis." Solander.
" Alcyonium (medullare) incitistans,irregulare, polymorphum
album, subtilissime reticulatum. " Lamarck.
16. H. AUEOLATA, iucrustans ii*regularis nee bibula nee vi
resiliendi praedita alveolata muco pisculento scatens ; osculis
porisve nuUis ; spiculis raris breviusculis curvatis utrinque acu-
tis. In dubium revocari potest utinim haec spongia varictas
sit Dysidece fragilis ?
17. H. ACULEATA, crustacea crassa informis imperfecte cel-
lulosa sicca friabilis, spiculis longissimis hispida.
■\ ^ H. verce, spicidis suhulatis capite obtusiusculu.
18. H. FUCORUM, amorpha in nodulis spongiosis plerunique
fucos vestiens porosa ; osculis paucis aut nullis ; spiculis brevi-
usculis curvatis hac quam altera parte acutioribus.
19. H. INCKUSTANS, sessilis crassa informis fulva et ccllu-
losa, superficic rude porosa ; osculis paucis substellatis depres-
sis ; spiculis brovibus rectis extremitate altera obtusis altera
acuminatis.
20. H. .sAisuKKATA, crustacea crassa rude porosa et intus
subsimilis ; osculis papilliformibus s])arsis immarginatis ; spicu-
lis iis //. incrustantLs- conforniibus, et hinc spongiani banc ejus,
variclatem esse suspicor.
248 SYNOPSIS.
21. H. ^GAGROPiLA, amorpha orbiculatim plerumque con-
gesta, intus fibrosa et rude cellulosa, extra cute papyracea et
numerose mamillata vestita, mamillis perforatis ; spiculis acu-
minatis capite obtusiusculo.
22. H. SERiATA, Crustacea tenax fulva superficie plana laevi
minutissime porosa ; osculis numerosis aequalibus seriatim dispo-
sitis ; spiculis brevibus crassis lente curvatis subulatis capite ob-
tusiusculo. '
23. H. CELATA, informis flava duriuseula nee bibula imper-
fecte cellulosa foraminibus rotundis ubique pertusa, foraminum
osculo plerumque papilla clauso ; spiculis capitulo globoso.
Varietates sunt : (A) — Massa informis et crassa conchyliis
sabuloque referta spongise verse structuram minime exhibens :
— (B) Conchicola, foramina conchae ostreorum spongiositate
flava implens : — (C) Crustacea spongiosa maculis villosis con-
chylia vestiens.
24. H. SANGUINEA, crustacea irregulariter diifusa sanguinea
superficie lasvi ; osculis par\ is sparsisque planis ; spiculis longis
subulatis lente curvatis.
■f -f -f H. dubicB — a vie non vis^.
25. H. AUREA, crassa infonnis fusco-flava superficie inaequa-
li, muco oppleta.
26. H. coNus, informis lobulata fusco-flava muco scatens,
spiculis hirsuta.
27. H. RiGiDA, sessilis rigida flavescens porosa iiTegulariter
lobata, muco plena.
28. H. PERLEVis, Crustacea ii'regularis flava subtilissime cel-
lulosa extra papillis parvis obtusisque obtecta. — An varietas H.
scriat(B ?
SYNOPSIS. 249
* * *
SpongicB solidcB et durce homogenecp.
29. H. coALiTA, ramosissima diffuse vagans, ramis varieim-
plexis et confluentibus tereti-compressis, osculis parvis et spar-
sis munitis ; spiculis utrinque acutis.
30. H. viRGULTOSA, stipite duro simplici vel ramoso, ramis
subteretibus virgatis erectis acutiusculis, superficie pannosa ;
spiculis subulatis capite obtusiusculo.
31. H, HiRSUTA, Crustacea irregularis granosa et supei'ficie
villosa, nee poris distinctis nee osculis munita ; spiculis subu-
latis.
32. H. SUBEREA, tuberiformis cochleas univalvas obvolvens
compacta superficie laeviuscula, osculorum expers ; spiculis su-
bulatis capitulo globoso munitis.
33. H. MAMiLLARis, difformis griseo-flavescens ci'ustacea,
intus fibroso-spongiosa, " tubulis conico-flexuosis in superficie
eminentibus inaequalibus."
34. H. Ficus, turbinata compacta solida superficie Isevi et
glabra ; osculis inconspicuis sparsis ; spiculis subvilatis inaequa-
libus.
35. H. CARNOSA, ficifoi'mis carnosa solida superficie laevi et
glabra, colore cinerea ; spiculis capite globoso.
36. H. SEvosA, sessilis alba in ci'istam complanatara forma-
ta, compacta sericea ; spiculis fusif bnnibus longiusculis utrinque
acutis lente curvatis.
Genus— SPONGILLA.
Character. Spongia viridis ct fcctida, aquam fluviatilem
incolens, multiformis, sine ordine diffusa, intus lacunis ca-
vernisque impcrfccte permcata : cellulec inwqualos, quarum
250 SYNOPSIS.
parietes exspiculis siliceis jure quasi gelato in fibras agglu-
tinatis contexuntur, mucum turbidum includunt, atque in-
terdum ovis innumeris seu sphaerulis semiiia cohibentibus re-
plentur.
1. Sp. fluviatilis, molliuscula fragilis, textura rariuscula,
spiculis lente curvatis utrinque acuminatis Varietates prin-
cipuae in verbis eel. Lamarckii bene descriptae sunt :
(1.) " Sp. jndi'inata, subincrustans, sessilis, crassa, convexa,
sublobata ; osculis majusculis, sparsis.
(2.) " Sp.friahiUs, sessibs convexa, obsolete lobulata, intus
fibrosa, fibris longitudinalibus, ramuloso-cancellatis.
(3.) " Sp. ramosa, sessilis, ramis elongatis subteretibus in-
sequalibus, lobulatis."
2. Sp. laclfstris, duriuscula fragibs, textura fibrosa; spi-
culis brevioribus utrinque acutis. [f ]
Genus— SPONGIA.
Character. Stirps radicata multiformis e fibris reticulatis
contexta flexilis bibula porosissima, osculis majusculis nun-
quam in papillis elevatis superficie sparsis. Species ple-
rumque pelagise.
1. S. PULCHELLA, sessilis multiformis varie lobata mollis et
tactum permulcens porosissima, fibris concinne reticulatis laevi-
bus nudis ; osculis sparsis obsoletis.
2. S. LiMBATA, sessilis informis simplex aut lobulata molli-
uscula porosissima, fibris reticulatis et spiculis minimis refertis
nudis ; osculis sparsis. Species littoralis et parva.
3. S. LAEVIGATA, mollis bibula, superficie laevi, minutissime
porosa ; fibris tenuissimis pulchre reticulatis. [-]-] Incerti ge-
neris.
3
SYNOPSIS. 251
Genus— DYSIDEA (Duseideia.)
Character. Spongia multiformis sessilis crasse cellulosa
mucagine sabulo arenata scatcns, siccata friabilis, fibris im-
perfectis seposita : spiculis sparsis paucis fornici et magnitu-
dine incertis.
1. D. FRAGiLis, informis sessilis crassa arena asperata, sic-
cata friabilis, spiculis paucis nee certae figuroe.
2. D ? PAPILLOSA, arenacea lutosa crustacea mamillis cy-
liudraceis perforatis, apicibus rotundis et ocellatis, ornata. Coch-
leas incrustans.
Genus— HALISARCA.
Character. Spongia gelatinosa diffuse repens cute tenui
et Isevi vestita spiculis ct cellulis fibratis carens. — Genus lit-
torosum, rupes et fucorum radices oruans.
1. H. DuJARDiNii. Generis unica species.
Genus— GRANTIA.
Character. Spongise plerumque albicantes minutissime
porosffi ncc vi rcsilicndi prccditoe, c spiculis calcarcis multi-
formibus in mcmbrana gelatinosa contcxtcc ; osculis rotun-
dis planis. — Parvum sod nitiduni genus fucos confervas-
fj[uc littorales amans, ncc rupcs effugiens.
* Cavcc.
1. Gr. compress a, simplex compressa foliacea subtilissinie
porosa laevis ; osculis paucis vel in ajjice vel in margine perfo-
ratis ; spiculis clavatis et triradiatis.
2. Gu. LACuxosA, simplex flabellatiui complanata brevi pc-
252 SYNOPSIS.
diolo fulta, lateribus lacunatis, osculo terminali ; spiculis trifur-
catis.
3. Gr. ciliata, simplex tubulosa conico-flexuosa vel ovata
muricata, apice spinulis erectis vitreis ciliato. — ^Varietas aliquan-
do invenitur ore ciliis brevibus aut fere nullis circumdato.
4. Gr. pulverulenta, simplex minima ovata superficie vil-
losa ; spiculis aut simplicibus aut trifurcatis. [t]
5. Gr. fistulosa, simplex lineari-elongata compressa sub-
villosa superficie Isevi, osculo unico terminali inermi ; spiculis
triradiatis inaequalibus, plurimis majusculis.
6. Gr. botryoides, ramosissima alba varie implexa, ramis
incertis tubulosis subvillosis apicibus apertis ; spiculis trifurca-
tis. Obs. Facies diversas haec spongia facile assumit.
* * Crustacece.
7. Gr. nivea, crustacea alba siccata friabilis nunc plana
mmc in cristas plicatiles insurgens, osculis sparsis ; spiculis plu-
rimum trifurcatis, quibus pauca quatuor radiis ornata interdum
admiscentur.
8. Gr. coriacea, crustacea mollis fulva et subcamosa cras-
se porosa ; spiculis parvis trifurcatis.
SYNOPSIS. 253
Classis— LITHOPHYTA.
Character. Algae in mari nascentes, lapideaj, aut plantae
habitu gaudentes aut in crustas tenues aut in massas solidas
et informes sese evolventes.
Familia— CORA LLINE^.
Character. Algae plantiformes ramosissimse articulatae,
ex axe ccntrali vegetabili crustaque calcarea passim interrupta
compositse, tubercula seminalia ad apices aut in axillis ra-
musculorum tempestive producentes.
Genus— CORALLINA.
Character. Corallina e basi explanata assurgens triclio-
toma, articulata, articulis approximatis subcompressis ;
axis algcnsis solidus ; cwtex calcarea crassa poris expers.
1. C. OFFICINALIS, " trichotoma, articulis stirpium subcom-
pressis subcuneifoiinibus, ramulorum cylindricis ; temiinalibus
nonnullis capitatis." Solander In aetate juvenili haec co-
rallina maculas calcareas atque crustas Ucheniformcs ubique su-
per rupes, saxa, fucos el corallinas adultas format. Hae crusta;
cum parvae simt et membranaceae, poris nonnullis pertusae, Me-
LOBEsiJE esse species a eel. Lamouroux dicuntiu" ; et cum ma-
jores et crassiores crescunt tunc pro speciebus MiLLEPORiE ab
aliis habentur.
2. C. ELONGATA, " trichotoma, articulis stirpium subtereti-
cuneiformibus ; ramorum cylindricis ; summis obtusiusculis ;
nonnullis capitatis." Solander Priore gracilior cum pin-
nulis ramusculorum setaceis.
3. C. SQUAMATA, " trichotoma, articulis stirpium rotundato-
254 SYNOPSIS.
com))ressis cuneiformibus ; ramulorum compressis planis ; \illi-
mis complanatis ancipitibus acutis." Solander.
Genus— JANIA.
Character. Corallina e disco parvo assurgens, gracilis,
dicliotoma, articulata, articulis approximatis prope cylindri-
cis ; axis solidus ; cortex calcarea tenuior laevis.
1. J. RUBENS, " dichotoma filiformis, articulis stirpium tere-
tibus ; dichotomise claviformibus ; inferioribus nonnullis bicor-
nibus." Varietates maxima signatai sunt :
(1.) Cristata, " dichotoma capillaris, articulis teretibus, ra-
mulis fasciculatis cristatis, divisuris penultimis et extremis ova-
riferis."
(2.) Spermophoros, " dichotoma capillaris, articulis subte-
retibus, divisuris penultimis et ultimis ovai-iferis, corniculis ter-
minalibus setaceis." Solander.
2. J. coRNicuLATA, " inferne pimiata, extremitate dicho-
toma." Pallas. — " Dichotoma, articulis stirpium bicornibus ;
ramulorum teretibus." Solander. — Varietas a eel. Lamou-
roux primum descripta pinnulis setaceis longis et crispatis insig-
nis, Corallinis propriis adeo simillima est ut generis illius species
non inapte dicatur.
Genus— HALIMEDA.
Character. Corallina e basi raraosa, in flabellum diffu-
sa, articulata ; articuli reniformes ; axis e fibris fasciculatis
compositus, crusta calcarea tenui indutus.
1. H. OPUNTIA, "trichotoma articulata, articulis compressis
imdulatis reniformibus." Solander. Hujus speciei "mare
Americanum," dicitur esse locus ; hinc oritur quaestio utrum spe-
cies Britanuica, quae nostra littora rarissime quidem petit, non
potius Halimeda Tuna, maris Mediterranei incola nota, ha-
beatur.
Familia— NULLIPORTDiE.
Character. Alga calcarese solidlusculse bomogenese,
SYNOPSIS.
9Pifi
aut informcs aut in raodo corallii ramosre aut in laniinas
tenues Iseves vel varie convolutas crescentes. — Obs. Pro-
pagines hse ad classem algarum male rclatse sunt, nam
a corallinis easdem natas esse credo. Semina illorum in
locis inhospitis gemmantia, et vi vegetanti insita adrao-
nita, formas parentibus ignotas et inclioatas tantum evolveve
coguntur.
Genus— NULLIPORA.
Character. — " Stirps irregularis, e gelatina animali pror-
sus lapidescente/"' Schiveigger.
1. N. POLYMORPH A, " irregularis, glomerata, solida ; ramulis
grossis, brevibus, obtusis, subnodosis." Lamarck.
2. N. CALCAREA, " laxe ramosa, polychotoma, solida ; ramu-
lis gracilibus ; inferne coalescentibus, apice obtusis," Lamarck.
— " Millepora ramosa albissima solida dichotoma, ramulis at-
tenuatis coalescentibus." Solander.
3. N. FASCICULATA, " glomerata, dense cymosa ; ramis
erectis, fasciculatis, confertis, apice incrassatis, obtusis." La-
marck.
4. N. AGARiciFORMis, " alba solidissima foliosa, lamiuis ses-
silibus semicircularibus congestis." Pallas. — " Millepora cre-
tacea lamellata, laminis varie decussantibus." Solander.
" Prima liuis est luinniim' sapiontiif, valdc siniilia posse distiiiguere.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
PLATE I. Fig. 1, Tethea Cranium, of the natural size, from a spe-
cimen presented to mej by Messrs Edward Forbes and J. Goodsir.
Fig. 2, A section of ^the same. Fig. 3, A minute portion of the sur-
face magnified. Fig. 4, A fusiform spiculum, and Fig. 5, Three of
the tricuspidate spicula of the same. Fig. 6, The oviform bodies mag-
nified, and 7, One of them viewed through the microscope after com-
pression between two plates of glass. Fig. 8, Three of the cuticular
spicula. Fig. 9, The spicula of Tethea Lyncurium. Fig. 10, A
minute film of the rind compressed between plates of glass, and highly
magnified, to shew the starred spicula.
PLATE II. Fig. I, Halichondria PALMATA. The figure is about one-
half the size of the specimen from which it was drawn. Figs 2, 3,
Small specimens of the same species of the natural size ; these are in
the collection of Mr Bean of Scarborough. Fig. 4, Two oscula of the
natural size, a, as they appear before the superficial network has been
removed ; 6, an open osculum with canals opening within its rim.
Fig. 5, The spicula.
PLATE Till. Fig. 1, Halichondria oculata, of nearly the natural
size. Fig. 2, The spiculum. Fig. 3, A minute slice of Geodia Zet-
LANDICA magnified to shew the structure of the crust and of the in-
terior. Fig. 4, A few of the cuticular globules highly magnified. Tlie
fibrous fringe about them is produced by the drying of the surround-
ing organic mucus.
PLATE IV. Fig. 1, Haliciiokoria cervicornis, natural size, from
a specimen in the collection of the late Mr Templeton. Fig. 2, A
small portion magnified. Fig. 3, The pattern of Halichondria ci-
nerea as seen through a high magnifier. Fig. 4, Three of its spi-
cula.
PLATE V. Fig. 1 and 2, Varieties of Haliciiondiiia cervicorvis,
of the natural size. Fig. 3, The gemmules and simple and starred
spicula of Pachymatisma Johnstonia as seen through a high mag-
nifier. The preparation given me by .1. S. Bowerbank, Esq.
cy
^
258 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
"^•^ PLATE VI. Fig. 1, 2, Halichondria Montaguii of the natural size,
and its spicula magnified. Fig. 3, Halichondkia infundibuli-
FORMis, and Fig. 4, Its spicula.
'^ PLATE "VII. Halichondria ventilabrum of the natural size, with
its spicula magnified. The figure is from an Irish specimen in the col-
lection of R. Ball, Esq.
^ PLATE VIII. Halichondria SIMULAN3. The figures shew its prin-
cipal varieties, drawn from specimens sent to me by Dr Scouler of Dub-
lin. Fig. 6, the spicula.
r/' PLATE IX. Halichondria fucorum witb its spicula.
PLATE X. Halichondria panicea. Fig. I, The sponge in its pri-
mary crustaceous condition. Fig. 2, in its crustaceous and normal
state. Fig. 3, In an irregular lobulated and papillary state. Fig. 4,
With a looser and more friable texture than is usual. Fig. 5, in its
free massive condition. Fig. 6, A section of two oscula to shew how the
canals open into them, and the effluent currents. Fig. 7> The orifice
of an osculum magnified. Fig. 8, A thin slice of the sponge magni-
fied to shew its structure. P'ig. 9i The spicula magnified.
PLATE XI. Fig. 1, Halichondria ^gagropila, from a specimen in
the collection of Dr Scouler of Dublin. Fig. 2, The spicula. Fig. 3»
Halichondria saburrata, and Fig. 4, Its spicula. Fig. 5, Ha-
lichondria PANICEA, var. papillaris, and Fig. 6, its spicula.
^ PLATE Xn. Fig, 1,1,1, Halichondria coalita of the natural size,
with its spicula magnified. Fig. 2, Hal. fucgrum, investing a por-
tion of Plumularia falcata, whence the peculiarity of its form. Fig. 3, 3,
Hal. incrustans in its crustaceous state with the spicula. Fig. 4,
A piece of a sponge supposed to be the Spongia pilosa of Montagu, but
probably a state of Dysidece fragilis. Fig. o, 6, 6, Hal. suberia
of the natural size with its spicula viewed with a high magnifier.
PLATE XIII. Fig. 1, 2, 3, Halichondria aculeata with its spicula.
Fig. 4, 4, Hal. areolata with the spicula. Fig. 5, 5, Hal. in-
causTANS with the spicula. Fig. 6, Dysidea fragilis of the
natural size from a dried specimen, with various forms of its spicula.
The latter are from sketches furnished by J. S. Bowerbank, Esq.
Fig. 7» 8, Hal. carnosa with its spicula.
PLATE XIV. Fig. I, Halichondria fruticosa, from a specimen
which had been washed ashore and lost its organic mucus. Fig. I, a.
A small portion of the fibre magnified. Fig. 1, h, The spicula. Fig.
2, 2, Hal. seriata. Fig. 3, 3, Hal. sanguinea with its spicula.
Fig. 4, Dysidea fragilis in a dry condition.
PLATE XV. Fig. 1, Halichondria virgultosa, natural size. Fig.
2, A small slice seen through a low magnifier. Fig. 3, 3, The spicula.
Fig. 4, 5, Hal. Ficus, from specimens in the collection of Mr Bean.
Fig. 6, The .spicula, from a specimen given me by Mr Edward Forbes.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 259
PI, ATE XVI. Fig. 1, Halichondria hirsuta of the natiJral size.
F"ig. 2, Hal. mammillaris of the natural size, from a specimen in
the collection of William Thompson, Esq. Fig, 3, Hal. sevosa,
natural size. Fig. 4, A portion magnified to show the spicula protrud-
ing from the organic mucus. Fig. 4, b. The spicula highly magnified.
Fig. 5, Alcvonidiuji gelatinosum in its primary state. The
figure was engraved before the real nature of the production was de-
tected. Fig. 6. Dysidea PAPILL0S4 of the natural size, and Fig.
7, one of the papillae slightly magnified, with a section of the same.
P'ig. 8, Haltsarca Dujardinii, natural size.
PLATE XVII. Spongilla fluviatihs. Fig. 1, in its crustaceous,
and Fig. 2, in its massive state. Fig. .3, represents it throwing up
branches from a crustaceous base.
PLATE XVIII. Spongilla fluviatilis, in its arborescent state, with
its spicula and seminiferous capsules.
PLATE XIX. Fig. 1, Spongia pulchella, from a fine specimen in
the collection of the late Mr Templeton. P'ig. 2, The same from a
specimen found in Berwick bay. Fig. 3, 4, 5, Spongia limbata,
from specimens from very remote localities.
PLATE XX. Fig. 1, Grantia compressa, of the natural size, from
specimens gathered in Berwick bay. Fig. 2, Gr. laccnosa of the
natural bize, and fig. 3, the same magnified, from a specimen sent me
by JMr W. Bean. Fig. 4, Ga. ciliata, from a drawing made from
the living sponge by JMr Edward Forbes. Fig. 6, Grantia nivea,
a state of, from the coast of Ireland. Fig. 7, Gr. fistulosa, from
a small specimen sent to me by .VIr William Thompson. Fig. JJ, 8,
Halcchondria albescens, of the natural size, with iis spicula.
PLATE XXI. Fig. 1, 2, Grantia botryoides, as very commonly met
with. Fig. 3, Gr. botryoides in an abnormal state from growing
underneath a flat stone. Fig. 4, A portion of this Grantia as seen
through a magnifier. Fig. 5, A minute portion of the surface more
highly magnified. Fig. C, Specimens of Grantia ciliata in an
unusual state or form; and Fig. T, one of the same seen through a
magnifier. Fig. 8, Gr. nivea of the natural size. Fig. 9, Gr. co-
riacea, natural bize.
PLATE XXII. Fig. 1, Corallina officinalis in its crustaceous and
lichenoid state. Fig. 2, CoR. officinalis, when full grown and in
its normal form. Fig. 3, 4, 5, A small portion, from different speci-
mens, magnified ; Fig. 3 was drawn after the calcareous crust had been
removed by an acid, l-'ig. C, A small portion of Fig. 2, deprived of its
calcareous matter and highly magnified. Fig. 7i The seniinul granules,
copied from Ellis. Fig. 8, A portion of the Nullipora agarici-
formis deprived of its calcareous earth, and highly magnified, to show
its structure.
260 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Ohs. In reference to Figure 6, it is to be remarked, that in only some
specimens could such an appearance of vessels, as is there shown
be seen, and the appearance 7n(i>j have been produced by folds
occasioned by the pressure between the plates of glass to which the
specimen was subjected. Of Algae, the Hon. W. H. Harvey
says, — " All consist of simple cellular tissue, or of its elements,
gelatine, membrane, and endochrome, variously elaborated and
perfected. No vessels or ducts have been discovered in any." —
Man. Brit, Algae, Introd. p. xvii.
PLATE XXIII. Fig. 1, A tuft of Jania rubens, natural size. Fig. 2,
A portion highly magnified to show the cellular structure of the axis, for
the calcareous crust has been removed by an acid j the tubercles con-
taining granules ; and the seminal capsules in the axils of the extreme
branchlets. Fig. 3, Is another portion from -another specimen from
which the crust has been likewise removed, highly magnified.
PLATE XXIV. Fig. 1, 2, 3, Nullipora polymorpha, all of the na-
tural size. Fig. 4, 5, NuL. calcarea. Fig. 6, Nul. fascicu-
LATA. The specimen had been originally of greater size, but consi-
derably broken in the carriage.
PLATE XXV. Fig. 1, Millepora lichenoides of Ellis and Solander.
Fig. 2, 3, Varieties, solid and amorphous, of Nullipora poly-
morpha. Fig. 4, The mass from which this figure was taken had
the texture and consistency of Nullipora fasciculata, and it
may be considered as representing a state of a coralline intermediate
between that species and Nul. agariciformis. I was unwilling to
describe it as a species, for there is in fact no end to the varieties which
these abortive productions assume, originating as they do in the pecu-
liarities of their seminal beds :
" — . we find
" It matters much with what first seeds are join'd ;
" What site, and what position they maintain,
" What motion give, and what receive again."
Lucretius, trans, by Creech,
INDEX.
Achilleum - Page 164
CoRALLiNA ^axa Page
217
Alcyonella stagnoriim 162
longicaulis
221
Alcyonium aiirantium - 85
membranacea
217
bulbosum - 1 39
muscosa
225
bursa - 87
officinalis -
216
compactum 139
opuntia
229
cranium - 83
rubens
224
Cydonium 85, 87
spermoplioros
226
195
squamata -
222
ficiforrne - 144
Corallines
206
Jicus - 144, 146
Cor allium
231
incrustans 122
album
238
Lyncurium S3, 85
lichenoides
217
manus diuboli 1 15
Cydonium Mulleri 85
, 195
medullar e 1 14
paniceum 115
DUSEIDEIA
185
papillosum 1 14
fragilis
187
tomeiitosiim J 14
papillosa
190
tuberosum 139
Dysidea
251
tubulosum 115
Amorphozoa - 78
Ephyda
^m
149
canalium
160
Badiaga - - 149
fluviatilis
159
fluviatilis - 159
friubilis
159
lacustris
159
Calcispoiigia - 172
botryoides 179
Flabetk
rid
228
JuVca - 182
opuntia
229
Cliona celata - 125
Codium opuntiu - 230
Geodia
.
195
CoRALLINA - 216
tuberosa
196
anglica - 216
zetlandica
195
auricular icef or -
Gkantia
172
mis - 217
botryoides
178
calvadosii 217
ciliata
176
corniculata 227
compressa
174
cristuta - 225
coriacea
183
elongata - 221
roronata
176
globifcra 226
262
INDEX.
Grantia fistulosa Page 181
Halichondria ventila-
lacunosa - 176
brum Page 1 07
muldcavata 183
virgultosa
137,
nivea - 181
197
pulverulenta 180
Haliclona
88
oculata
94
Haleponge panniforme 94-
Halimeda
228
Halichondria 88
opuntia -
229
aculeata 131
Halina
88
segagropila 119
papillaris
115
albescens 198
Halisauca
192
areolata -
Dujardinii
192
121, 197
Halispongia
88
aurea 131
cegagropila
119
carnosa 146
palmata
93
celata 125,197
panicea
122
cervicornis 96
papillaris
114.
cinerea - 110
parasitica
112
coalita - 135
reptans
109
columbas 101
sanguinea
134
conus - 132
suberica -
139
ticus - 144"
ventilabra
107
Jluviatilis 159
fruticosa 103
Jania
224
fucorum 112
corniculata
227
hirsuta 138
rubens
224
hispida - 98
spermophoros
225
incrustans 122
infundibuli-
Leucalia
172
formis 1 05
Leconid,
172
Johnstonial98
cowpressa -
174
lucusiris . 162
Lithophyta nuUipora
231
naamillaris 142
Montaguii 99
Manon oculatum
93
oculata 94
Melobesia elegans
221
palmata 92
farinosa
217
panicea 114
rnembranacea
217
panicea 122
pustulata -
217
papillaris 1 14
Millepora agariciformis
241
parasitica 1 1 2
alga
217
peilevis 133
culcarea 238
240
plumosa 103
coriacea 237
,241
ramosa • 99
decussuta
241
ramosa - 94
fasciculata. -
240
rigida - 132
fuliacea
217
saburrata
fucorum
217
120, 197
informis
238
sanguinea 133
lichenoides
217
seriata 125,197
miniucea
217
sevosa 147,198
polymorpha
217,
simulans 109
238
240
subereal39,197
tortuosa
241
suberica 1 39
Millepores
231
INDEX.
263
NuLLiPORA Page 231, 238
agariciformis 241
calcarea - 240
fasciculata 240
informis - 238
lichenoides 217
polymorpha 238
Nulliporidae - 231
Pachymatisma -
244
Johnstonia
244
Padina deusta
237
Scypha botryoides
179
cancellata
101
coronata
176
foliacea
174
Icevigata
170
ovata
180
tubulosa
99
Spongia
164
ananas
180
aurea
131
baccillaris
93
botryoides
178
CCBridea
111
canal um
160
calyciformis
105
cancellata
101
cervicoinis
96
ciliata
176
cinerea
HI
clavala
110
coalita
135
columbcc
101
compacta
115
complicata -
179
compressa
174
c07ifervicola
179
conus
132
coriacea
183
coronata
176
cratcriformis
105
crispat a
104
cristata
115
dichotoma
94
digitata 97,
98,96
echidna:a
96
fava
122
fluviatilis 159, 160
foliacea
174
foliascens
107
fragilis
187
SpoTHGiA friabilis Page 159
fniticosa 97, 103
fucoi'um - 112
hispida - 98
Itnperati - 143
injiata - 180
infundibuUformis 1 05
lacustris 159, 160, 162
laevigata - 170
lanuginosa 96
licheniformis 104
limbata - 168
lobata - 168
lycopodium 137
mammiferis 143
mamillaris 142
muricata 97
nivea - 182
oculata 93, 94
palmata - 92
panicea 122, 114, 176
papillaris 115
parasitica 112
penicillus 142
perlevis - 133
pihsa - 83
pluniosa - 103
pocillum 105, 107
polychotoma 94
prolit'era - 170
pulchella - 166
pulverulenta 111,180
ramosa 94, 96, 99
rigida - 132
sunguinea 134
scypha - 107
seniitubulosa 99
seriata - 125
stuposa - 96, 98
suberia 139, 190
suberosa 135, 139
terebrans - 131
tomentosa 1 14
tubulosa - 99
urceolus - 1 75
wens - 114
urtica - 114
ventrilabrifonnis 107
ventilabrum 107
verucosa - 85
virguHosa - 137
xerampelina 107
zetlandica 1 07
SpongUla - 149
2G4
INDEX.
Spongilla canuliurn
Page
160
Tiiplia
Page 149
fluviatilis
J59
aurea
-
131
fluviatilis
160
coalita
-
135
friabilis
159
conica
.
132
lacustris
162
dichotoma
.
94
lacustris
160
digitata
-
96
pulvinata
160
hispida
-
98
ramosa
.
160
lobata
.
168
oculata
_
94
Tethea
81
perlevis
-
133
cranium
.
83
ramosa
.
99
Lyncurium
85,
195
rigida
-
132
Tethia cranium
-
85
stuposa
-
96
Tethya lacunata
-
87
penicilliformis
143
Ulva squamaria
-
237
pilosa
-
83
sphcBrica
-
85
Zonaria deusta
-
237
verrucosa
-
85
PRINTED BY JOHN STARK,
OLD ASSEMBLY CLOSE, EDINBURGH
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