THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[SECOND SERIES.] 
No. 20. AUGUST 1849. 
IX.—A descriptive Account of the Freshwater Sponges (genus 
Spongilla) in the Island of Bombay, with Observations on their 
Structure and Development. By H. J. Carrer, Esq., Assist- 
ant Surgeon, Bombay Establishment. 
[ With three Plates. ] 
Since my “ Notes” on these Sponges were published* I have 
made many more observations on them, and have extended my 
inquiries into their structure and development, so as to be able 
to offer a more accurate account of them than I could formerly. 
I have also ventured to name four out of the five species I have 
described, because they either do not appear to have hitherto 
been met with, or if before noticed, have not had their specific 
differences described with sufficient minuteness for their present 
identification. The only species which I think I have recognized 
is Spongilla friabilis (Lam.), that kind so admirably described by 
Dr. Grant}; but even here the point on which I have founded 
my distinctive characters, viz. the form of the spicula round the 
seed-like bodies, has not been mentioned with that minuteness 
which renders my recognition of it entirely satisfactory. So far 
as actual observation and the information I have derived from 
the descriptions of others extend, all the species of Spongzlla 
which have hitherto been described appear to be so amorphous, 
that without a knowledge of their minute structural differences, 
they are irrecognizable. Had this fact been formerly established, 
the same course which I have pursued for thei specification 
would in all probability have been adopted from the beginning ; 
but with only two species, Spongilla fiuviatils and lacustris and 
their varieties{, the genus appears to have failed from its insig- 
* Trans. Med. and Phys. Soc., Bombay, No. 8. Reprinted in Ann. and 
Mag. Nat. Hist. No. 4, April 1848. 
+ Edinb. Phil. Journal, vol. xiv. p. 270. 
+ Johnston’s Brit. Sponges, Synopsis, p. 250. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist, Ser. 2. Vol. iv. 6 
