570 



HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTES. 



indifferent whether one of them be cut into ten, 

 or ten hundred parts, each becomes as perfect 

 an animal as that which was originally divi- 

 ded; but it must be observed, that the smaller 

 the part which is thus separated from the rest, 

 <he longer it will be in coming to maturity, or 

 in assuming its perfect form. It would be 

 endless to recount the many experiments that 

 have been tried upon this philosophical pro- 

 digy : the animal has been twisted and turned 

 into all manner of shapes ; it has been turned 

 inside out, it has been cut in every division, 

 yet still it continued to move ; its parfs adapted 

 themselves again to each other, and in a 

 short time it became as voracious and industri- 

 ous as before. 



Besides these kinds mentioned by Mr Trem- 

 bley, there are various others which have been 

 lately discovered by the vigilance of succeed- 

 ing observers, and some of these so strongly 

 resemble a flowering vegetable in their forms, 

 that they have been mistaken by many natu- 

 ralists for such. Mr Hughes, the author of 

 the natural history of Barbadoes, has described 

 a species of this animal, but has mistaken its 

 nature, and called it a sensitive flowering 

 plant ; he observed it to take refuge in the 

 holes of rocks, and, when undisturbed, to 

 spread forth a number of ramifications, each 

 terminated by a flowery petal, which shrunk 

 at the approach of the hand, and withdrew into 

 the hole from whence before it had been seen 

 tp issue. This plant, however, was no other 

 than an animal of the polypus kind, which is 

 not only to be found in Barbadoes, but also on 

 many parts of the coast of Cornwall, and along 

 the shores of the continent. 



CHAP. V. 



OF THE LITHOPHYTES AND SPONGES. 1 



IT is very probable that the animals we see 

 and are acquainted with, bear no manner 



1 See the preceding note. There are about fifty diffe- 

 rent species of sponges, of which nine or ten belong to this 

 country. They are found in the Mediterranean and those 

 seas in warm and temperate latitudes.diminishing in num- 

 ber and becoming of inferior quality on the approach to 

 cold regions. They adhere to rocks in places the least 

 exposed to the action of currents and waves, which the ebb- 

 ing tide does not leave uncovered. The best sponges known 

 to us are those which come from the Archipelago, where 

 they abound near many of the islands, whose inhabitants 

 may be said to subsist by the sponge-fishery, if we may 

 so call it. At the Cyclades, for instance, sponge. diving 

 forms the chief employment of the population. The sea 

 is at all times extremely clear, and the experienced di- 

 vers are capable of distinguishing from the surface the 

 points to which the sponge is attached below, when an 

 unpractised eye could but dimly discern the bottom. 

 Each boat is furnished with a large stone attached to a 

 rope, and this the diver seizes in his hand on plunging 



of proportion to those that are concealed from 

 us. Although every leaf and vegetable 

 swarms with animals upon land, yet at sea 

 they are still more abxmdant ; for the greatest 

 part of what would seem vegetables growing 

 there, are in fact nothing but the artificial for- 

 mation of insects, palaces which they have 

 built for their own habitation. 



If we examine the bottom of the sea along 

 some shores, and particularly at the mouths of 

 several rivers, we shall find it has the appear 

 ance of a forest of trees under water, millions 

 of plants growing in various directions, with 

 their branches entangled in each other, and 

 sometimes standing so thick as to obstruct na- 

 vigation. The shores of the Persian Gulf, 

 the whole extent of the Red sea, and the wes- 

 tern coasts of America, are so choked up in 

 many places with these coraline substances, 

 that though ships force a passage through 

 them, boats and swimmers find it impossible 

 to make their way. These aquatic groves are 

 formed of different substances, and assume va- 

 rious appearances. The coral plants, as they 

 are called, sometimes shoot out like trees with- 

 out leaves in winter ; they often spread out a 

 broad surface like a fan, and not uncommonly 

 a large bundling head like a faggot ; some- 

 times they are found to resemble a plant with 

 leaves and flowers ; and often the antlers of a 

 stag, with great exactness and regularity. In 

 other parts of the sea are seen sponges of vari- 

 ous magnitude, and extraordinary appearan- 

 ces, assuming a variety of fantastic forms, like 

 large mushrooms, mitres, fonts, and flower- 

 pots. To an attentive spectator, these various 

 productions seem entirely of the vegetable 

 kind ; they seem to have their leaves and their 

 flowers, and have been experimentally known 

 to shoot out branches in the compass of a year. 

 Philosophers, therefore, till of late, thought 

 themselves pretty secure in ascribing these 

 productions to the vegetable kingdom ; and 

 Count Marsigli, who has written very labori- 

 ously and learnedly upon the subject of corals 

 and sponges, has not hesitated to declare his 

 opinion, that they were plants of the aquatic 

 kind, furnished with flowers and seeds, and 



head foremost from the stern. He does this in order to 

 increase the velocity of his descent; thus economizing his 

 tock of breath, as well as to facilitate his ascent when 

 ixhausted at the bottom, being then quickly hauled np 

 :iy his companions. Few men can remain longer than 

 about two minutes below; and, as the process of detach- 

 ing the sponge is very tedious, three, and sometimes four 

 divers descend successively to secure a particularly fine 

 specimen. 



The best sponge is that which is the palest and light- 

 est, has small holes, and is soft to the touch. By the 

 old physicians, sponge was regarded as a cure for a long 

 list of maladies; this list is now much abridged, though 

 burned sponge, in which form only it is used, still has a 

 place in the materia medica. 



