Mr. Hocc's Observations on the Spongilla fluviatilis, 365 
frequent in such Sponge must be their eggs. —“ Der Schwamm des süssen 
wassers soll eine absonderung ihrer kéhren oder zellen sein, ist sehr wabrschein- 
lich, Die kórner, welche man so häufig in solchen schwämmen findet, sollen 
die eier sein." 
Lamouroux, at page 3 of his “ Hist. des Polyp. Corall. Flex." 1816, says, 
Linne dit qu’en automne on voit des semences dans l'Eponge fluviatile. 
Kalm semble avoir copié le naturaliste Suédois. Ces auteurs prenaient pour 
des fructifications, des Cristatelles desséchées, ou des grains opaques d'une 
substance encore inconnue, dont les Eponges d'eau douce se trouvent quelque- 
fois entièrement remplies." 
Also, De Lamarck inquires, “ Les petits grains observés dans les Spongilles 
seraient-ils des gemmes propres à produire les Cristatelles, comme l'observa- 
tion de Lichtenstein“ semble l'indiquer?” (p. 99. tom. ii. of “ Hist. Nat. des 
Anim. sans Vert.,” edit. 1816.) | 
Hence, from these last three passages, we find that Lamouroux held these 
seedlike grains not to pertain to the Spongilla, but that they were dried or 
withered Cristatellæ, or else certain opake grains belonging to some unknown 
substance: and MM. Oken and De Lamarck inclined to consider them as 
the eggs or reproductive germs or gemmules of the Cristatella vagans (De 
Lamarck). This small polypary in its different stages, and several of its po- 
. lypes, are well represented in Reesel’s “ Insecten,” vol. iii. tab. 91. p. 559. 
Now I cannot for a moment suppose that these seedlike bodies are the 
germs or ovules of the Cristatelle, partly for this reason; because I have not 
yet succeeded in discovering any of those minute Zoophytes in the same rivulet 
which the Spongilla inhabits; and as I have found the same bodies to be 
abundant in different specimens of the Spongilla fluviatilis, not only in the 
summer and autumn, but also in the spring: it is extremely remarkable, and 
indeed most improbable, that I shonld not have been able to notice the Cris- 
tatelle in different stages of their development in that water, if these bodies 
were in reality their ovules or germs; whilst, on the contrary, I have con- 
There is an article by H. Lichtenstein on Sponges (Suesvampene) in “ Skrivter af Naturhistorie,” 
4 Bind, 1 Hefte, Kiobenhavn, 1797, where he, at page 115 and the following page, speaks of the 
river Sponge (Flod-suesvamp) : but, being written in Danish, I have not been able to read it, though 
I presume the author is the same Lichtenstein mentioned by De Lamarck. 
