268 Antediluvian Zoology and Botany. 
Consistently with our plan of supplying illustrations of the 
principal departments of fossil zoology, rather than a perfect 
classification, we commence with the lowest in the scale of 
animated nature, arranged under the class 
Sponges. —This tribe, whose structure approaches so closely 
to that of vegetables, is by no means abundant in the early fer- 
ruginous strata. It occurs plentifully in the ferruginous sand of 
Farringdon. (fg. 53.) The upper green sand contains a few 
species; the chalk 
formation abounds 
with them; and some 
spongiform varieties 
appear in the crag 
of Suffolk, but have 
not been properly 
examined. On _ ac- 
count of the delicate 
texture of these bo- 
dies, and the filling 
up of their cellular 
cavities by the matter 
of their matrices, it 
Sponges from Farringdon. The same species are figured is not often that they 
in British Mineralogy under the name of Spéngia pezizdides, are sufficiently dis- 
pl 482, Green Sand. Z neler 
tinct toadmit of ready 
examination. 
The recent sponges, which are classed by M. Lamouroux 
under seven principal divisions, comprise 161 species. We 
have given two figures in this work, of S. oculata and S. flu- 
viatilis. (Vol. I. p. 278.) 
Siphonie are distinguished by their resemblance to flowers 
(whence their original name of Tulip Alcyonia), and consist of 
bundles of tubuli, derived from a pedicle, and passing through 
a spongious substance. Several species have been noticed by 
Mr. Townsend, Mr. Parkinson, and Miss Bennett. (Vol. II. 
. 295. fig. 82., supra, represents a Siphonia from the green 
sand of Blackdown.) ‘They are associated in the upper green 
sand, and their principal localities are the Vale of Pewsey, 
Warminster, the Isle of Wight, and Devonshire. Mr. Web- 
ster traced them in the limestone of Portland, and in the 
sandstone between the chalk and the gault on the south coast 
of the Isle of Wight. A beautiful series of illustrative draw- 
ings, by this writer, occurs in the Zrans. Geol. Soc., whence 
the following figure is derived (vol. ii, 1st series, pl. 28. fig. 3.). 
(fig. 54.) 
