374 Mr. Hoee’s Observations on the Spongilla fluviatilis, 
Now the opinion which first struck me was the actual identity of these two 
bodies; that is to say, that the latter are only a younger and less mature 
condition of the former bodies; and this indeed appeared to me not impro- 
bable, considering that (although the same mass of Sponge possesses at the 
same period both sorts) they both in certain of their stages mutually approach 
very near in appearance and size to each other; for I have noticed in the 
same fresh specimen the least seedlike bodies to be of a white colour with 
their envelopes soft and destitute of any apparent orifice at their tops. 
Again, the largest germlike bodies which I have seen were more globular 
in their shape, without any terminal orifice, having the enveloping mem- 
branes, except a very small portion at their upper extremities, no longer 
transparent, by reason of the quantity of the opake matter having so much 
increased within them: the colour also of some that I preserved in spirits 
had lost its original whiteness, and changed to a yellowish brown or buff, the 
most usual colour of the full-grown seedlike bodies. Hence my grounds for 
supposing that the germlike bodies are only early forms of the seedlike bodies, 
which they would ultimately become when either sufficiently matured or at 
their proper season of the year“. 
To this, however, there is one objection, namely, 
in the one, and the presence of them in the other: yet I think it not un- 
likely that the seedlike bodies once possessed those organs; for on being 
highly magnified, their outer shells appear indented with small dots, which 
make me rather imagine that they are the spots where the papillæ may have 
originally been attached, but which, on the maturity of those bodies, 
all or part decayed or enlarged into fibres, 
the absence of all papilla 
either 
whereby they are fastened} within 
intermixed with very small granules (most pro’ 
a a ies | 5 bably the young locomotive germlike bodies), which also 
seem to orarin a particle of the same jelly, that will increase with the growth of the granules, after 
they may have escaped from the former body. Now I think, from my own observations, it is clear 
i ital portion from which th i 
odia 7: a | € substance of the sponge itself 
* Of course many of these would never ripen : : : 
pen into seedlike bodies; viz, those whi 
the pores and canals of the parent structure, and havin se which have emerged 
8 swum to a convenie in 
to grow. These form an exception to the above nt spot, there begi 
. : à supposition, which can onl l 
germlike bodies as cannot escape from the fibrous network of the Sponge E on 
t Some of = rupe — bodies frequently become detached by the decay of their connecting 
; by urrowing and tearing of insects, and other parasitical animals; or by the 
