194 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Time 



Mr. Walloi" is wiser l)Ul niii^-ht i)crli;ijts still l)cUcr have 

 omitted all allusion to the facts. In another place he shows 

 g-ood ideas of nomenclature by asking: whether the names 

 Leidyi, Millsii, Muleri, Baileyi, Capewelli, Ramsayi, Ever- 

 etti, g'ive anymore information tlian k-lters or nunu-rals. 

 We far prefer the numerals. 



The (juotation is as follows: 



''When Professor Hitchcock, t>f the United States, was 

 over here a few years a^o I g^ave him a specimen of the 

 Ditchleys spong-illa for his collection, and others also dis- 

 tributed by or throug-h me found their way to America, and 

 I sent a slide to Mr. Carter. After some time had elapsed 

 I heard that Mr. B. W. Thomas, an earnest worker of 

 Chicago, had found the same variety in the river Calumet, 

 and seeing its identity with that of Ditchleys, and finding- 

 that, in my description, I had declined specially- naming- it. 

 he proposed to call it Meyenia calumetica. Then Mr. 

 Carter, who had received a specimen from Mr. Thomas, 

 saw that it was identical with that he had received from nie 

 turned his att^Mition to the subject, and in an elaborate arti- 

 cle in "Ann. and Mag", of Natural History" g-ave it the 

 name of Meyenia ang-ustibirotulata, which title Mr. Ed- 

 ward Potts, in his admirable "Monog-ra])h on the Fresh- 

 water Sponges of America, '* has accepted. Mr. Thomas 

 llu'ii feels annoved that he should thus l)e superseded, as 

 Mr. Carter had, in the first instance, declared ag-ainst its 

 being a variety. 



For myself, w ho first discovered it 1'' years agf), and 

 might have claimed some voice in tlie matter, I could not 

 be otherwise tlian amused at the little (juarrel amongst 

 my friends, I having decided against giving the variation 

 anv separate name, mv views leading me in another direc- 

 tion. 



One satisfaction I have, however, gained in the knowl- 

 edge that the Spongilla of tlie riverCalumet is also found 

 growing upon the stem of aquatic plants, as it tends to 

 establish, what one would naturallv feel, that similar con- 

 ditions produce similar results." 



