370 Miscdlaneous. 



place Fungi, wliich in various small forms grow in damp jjlaccs in 

 the cave ; they can always be found attached to excremcntitioiis 

 matter dropped by the bats, rats, and other animals which extend 

 their range to the outer air. Fungi also grow on the dead bodies 

 of the animals which die in the caves, and are found abundantly 

 on fragments of wood and boards brought in by human agency. 

 The rats also have brought into fissures and ca^dties communicating 

 with tlie cave, seeds, nuts, and other vegetable matters, from time 

 immemorial, which have furnished food for insects. Thus rats and 

 bats have no doubt had much to do Avith the continuance of land 

 life in the cave ; and the mammals, of the postpliocene or earlier 

 period, which first wandered and dwelt in its shades were the intro- 

 ducers of a permanent land life. 



As to the Gammaroid crustacean, little food is necessary to sup- 

 port its small oeconomy ; but even that little might be thought to be 

 wanting, as we observed the clearness and limjjidity of the water in 

 which it dwells. IS'everthcless the fact that that water communi- 

 cates with an outside river, is a sufficient indication of the presence 

 of vegetable life and vegetable debris in variable quantities at dif- 

 ferent times. Minute freshwater Algae no doubt occur there, 

 the spores being brought in by external communication, while 

 remains of larger forms, as Conferva) «S:c., would occur plentifully 

 after floods. On this basis rests an animal life which is limited in 

 extent and must be subject to many vicissitudes. Yet a fuller ex- 

 amination will probably add to the number of species, and of these, 

 no doubt, a greater or less number of parasites on those already 

 known. The discovery of the little Lerna^an shows that this strange 

 form. of life has resisted all the -s-icissitudcs to which its host has been 

 subjected, that it has outlived all the physiological struggles 

 which a change of light and temperature must have produced, and 

 that it still preys on its host's life-blood, as its ancestoi-s did under 

 more favourable circumstances. That the blindness of the fish is 

 favourable to its " success in Hfe " cannot be denied ; but that 

 its own sight has been benefited by the change is very doubtful. — 

 IndianapoUs Journal, Sept. 5, lb71. 



Note on Spongia linteiformis, Espcr. By Dr. J. E. Gr vy, F.R.S. 



Having sent some specimens of Sj)ongia Jlnteiformis from the 

 Philippine Islands, referred to in the ' Aimals ' for August, p. 142, 

 to Prof. Agardh at Lund, he says : — " I believe it belongs to the 

 genus SiiontfoclaJia described bj' Prof. Arcschoug in the Acta of the 

 Academy of Stockholm ((Efversigt af Yetensk. Akad. Fiirhaiuiling. 

 Svo, 1853, no. 2). Eut the species of Areschoug was from Maiu-i- 

 tius, and somewhat difi'erent in form. Yours may be, if compared 

 with tliat, different almost in the same way as Codiinn dUatatinn is 

 difierent from Co(/i((»i tomcniosKm. It may be named, e.i' a)uilo(ti(i, 

 8pon<jiH-ladin difatnlu, if you wish that the name may indicate some 

 one of its characters."' 



