54 SPONGES 
wholly allowed to die out, and this shows how difficult it 
is to eradicateany idea which has once been published, be 
it truth or error, for nearly every author who has anything 
to say of sponges, quotes the opinions of Aristotle and 
Pliny. Such authors do not neglect, however, to state 
that they think sponges are not animals. 
Thus we find Ferrante Imperato in Historia Natvrale 
(Venetia, 1682) placing the sponges among the crypto- 
gamous vegetables, stating that he thinks that they are 
closely allied to the fungi. 
Ray agrees with Imperato, that sponges are vegeta- 
bles allied to the fungi, saying that they live affixed by a 
root to rocks, shells etc. and if torn away shoot up again 
from their root and grow as other plants do. (Historia 
Plantarum, London, 1686). 
Marsigli in 1710, although he asserts that he has seen 
contraction and dilitation in pores of several sponges which 
had just been removed from the sea, states that he believes 
sponges to be plants. Shortly after this time, Peyssonel 
