82 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Freshwater Sponges of Bombay. 



nificance to have obtained that attention which would have led to 

 a description of the minute differences now required. 



Not so with the nature of Spongilla, — that has been a disputed 

 point ever since it was first studied; its claims to animality or 

 vegetability with those of the other sponges have been canvassed 

 over and over again by the ablest physiologists, and yet remain 

 undecided ; still this subject does not appear to me to have been 

 viewed in a proper light, for late discoveries would seem to show 

 that there exists no line of demarcation between the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms, but that on the contrary the one passes by 

 gentle and at last imperceptible gradations into the other. From 

 the existence of cells as the principal component parts and as the 

 elaborators of the most complicated forms of animal and vege- 

 table structures, and the intimate connection that obtains between 

 these little organisms in both kingdoms in their isolated and in- 

 dependent existences and in their simplest composite forms, of 

 which I take Spongilla to be one, the time appears to have arrived 

 for abandoning the question of the animality or vegetability of 

 Spongilla, for the more philosophical consideration of the position 

 it holds in that transitionary part of the scale of organized bodies 

 which unites the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 



Hitherto only five species of Spongilla have been found in the 

 island of Bombay ; they are the following : — 



1. Spongilla cinerea, n. s. — Flat, surface slightly convex, pre- 

 senting gentle eminences and depressions. Vents situated in the 

 depressions, numerous, and tending to a quincuncial arrange- 

 ment. Colour darkly cinereous on the surface, lighter towards 

 the interior ; growing horizontally in circular patches, which sel- 

 dom attain more than half an inch in thickness. Texture com- 

 pact, fine, friable. Structure confused, fibro-reticulate ; fibres 

 perpendicular, densely aggregated and united by transverse fila- 

 ments. Seed-like bodies spheroidal, about ^rd of an inch in 

 diameter, presenting rough points externally. Spicula of two 

 kinds, large and small ; large spicula slightly curved, smooth, 

 pointed at both ends, about ^ T th of an inch in length ; small 

 spicula slightly curved, thickly spiniferous, about ^^ th of an inch 

 in length. (Plate III. fig. 5.) 



Hab. Sides of freshwater tanks in the island of Bombay, on 

 rocks, stones, or gravel ; seldom covered by water more than six 

 months in the year. 



Observations. — While the investing membrane of this species 

 remains intact, its surface presents a dark, rusty, copper-colour, 

 purplish under water. It never appears to throw up any pro- 

 cesses, and extends over surfaces of 2 and 3 feet in circumference, 

 or accumulates on small objects to the thickness mentioned. It 

 is distinguished from the other species by its colour, the fineness 



