with some Remarks on the Nature of the Spongiæ Marine. 373 
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 
powerful lens, whether these bodies possessed any spontaneous motions, 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 germinate, and became 
permanently fixed. Several of these seedlike bodies being of different sizes, 
I found that some began to grow sooner than others, probably by reason of 
their being in a more mature state. The manner of germination, according 
to my observation, is this: when the seedlike body has lain a sufficient time 
in the water, a very small quantity of a soft opake substance appears sponta- 
neously protruding from its apex or orifice at its top; it is of a pure white 
colour, and soon glues the seedlike body to the dish; this substance gradu- 
ally 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 thick gelatinous matter, 
like a piece of wet cotton-wool, is all that is to be seen: this, however, when 
allowed to dry, will exhibit the thin membrane of the Sponge, and the oscules 
and cells or pores formed by the interlacing and crossing of the young fibres 
with the sharp and prominent 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 enlarged. 
Having thus clearly proved that this Spongilla is capable of being repro- 
duced or grown both from its fixed seedlike, and from its locomotive germ- 
like, bodies t, it therefore is to be further inquired concerning the real nature 
of them. 
* M. De Lamarck is wrong where he has defined these bodies as “ granula plurima gelatinosa non 
affixa in cellulis." (An. sans Vert. tom. ii. p. 98. edit. 1816.) But M. Dutrochet thus correctly de- 
scribes the like bodies in the Spongilla lacustris : “ corps oviformes de couleur jaune, et qui adhéraient 
au tissu fibreux.” (p. 206.) Again, at p. 211, he says, “les fibres les plus grosses auxquelles étaient 
fixés d'innombrables corps oviformes." See Annal. des Sci. Nat. tom. xv. 
+ It perhaps seems inconsistent to say that the Sponge may be reproduced from both these bodies. 
But I will thus explain it: the fixed seedlike body contains within it a somewhat transparent jelly 
