74 HUXLEY, ON CLASSIFICATION. 
The next division is the group of the Spone1pA, which exist under 
such multitudinous forms in both salt and fresh waters. Up to the 
last few years we were in the same case, with respect to this class, as 
with the Gregarinida and the Rhizopoda. Some zoologists even have 
been anxious to relegate the sponges to the vegetable kingdom ; but. 
Fie. 2. 
Fig. 2. A, B, free and encysted conditions of an Amaba (after Auerbach) ; 
E, a Foraminifer (Rotalia) with extended pseudopodia; D, its shell in ~ 
section (after Schulze). 
the botanists, who understood their business, refused to have any- 
thing to do with the intruders. And the botanists were quite right ; 
for the discoveries of late years have not left the slightest doubt that 
the sponges are animal organisms, and animal organisms, too, of a 
very considerable amount of complexity, if we may regard as com- 
eS ee 
. 
