402 Mr. Hoee’s Observations on the Spongilla fluviatilis, 
but which, from its having neither polypes nor stellate pores, I consider to be 
a species of Sponge and not an Alcyonium. In this opinion Ellis, Solander*, 
and Montagut were likewise agreed. I will therefore bestow the more ap- 
propriate name of Spongia Cydonia, or the Quince Sponge, upon this sub- 
stance of Donati, of Linnæus, and of Pallas. 
Should, however, any future doubt be raised with respect to these seedlike 
bodies (sferette) described by Donati, or should it be hereafter attempted to 
be shown that the production itself is strictly an Alcyonium, this would not in 
any way invalidate my statement, because the testimony of Dr. Ehrenberg at 
all events decides the actual existence of sporidia (Sporangien) in certain Sea 
Sponges‘, and in all probability they, as well as sporules possessing for a 
short period the locomotive faculty observed by Dr. Grant in several others, 
will be found at the proper season of the year common to, and more or less 
abundant in, every species of the Spongie Marine. 
Now as to the currents of water: If these do indisputably take place inde- 
pendent of the respiration or other function of any marine insect, or worm, or 
crustacean, or molluscous$ animal parasitically nestled within the specimen 
of Spongia, I must consider that they are most likely caused by an endosmosis 
and exosmosis of fluids, in the manner I have already mentioned when descri- 
bing the analogous currents of the Spongilla: and if they always occur in all 
those Spongiæ Marine which are furnished with oscules, in the same constant 
and uniform manner that Professor Grant has informed us they do in a few of 
the more common species, that is to say, if the endosmose or entering fluid 
should be always found to flow in by the pores, and the exosmose or expelled 
one to issue out from the oscules; these facets then would only present an ana- 
logy with what is effected in the same regular mode by the sap in the higher 
plants, where the entering sap rises throughout the plant by one set of ves- 
* Ellis and Solander, Zooph., p. 183. 
i Similar sporidia are delineated at a. and b. 
eiae, das y are referred by the editor to a sort of Alcyonium, but which I must clearly 
editor at p. 42 of the same volume. consult the observation of the learned 
sd I may just remark that Play attributed the presence of Mollusca in the Sea Sponges to a cause 
Wey reverse of the fact; i. e. “ vivere escá, manifest) conchae minute in his (Spongiis) repertæ os- 
tendunt." Vide Nat. Hist., lib. ix, cap. 69. 
