70 THE DISCOVERERS 



m. 



The Discoverers of the British Species. 



In the " Herball" of Gerarde (1633) there is a rude fi- 

 gure of a British sponge scarcely sufficient to identify the 

 species in view. It is apparently copied from L'Obel,* who 

 had found it on the coast of Portland Island among the sea- 

 wrack. " Of tliis kind," says Ray, " Mr Newton also show- 

 ed me specimens found by liimself on the British shores.' 

 Ray has referred it to the Spongia ramosa, but under this 

 name the father of English Botany has clearly confound- 

 ed, as he himself suspected, f two or three species, viz. the 

 Halicliondna oculata, H. i:)almata and stuposa. The //. 

 panicea is also recorded in the " Synopsis," on the authority 



* " Matthias de I'Obel, Insulanus ad summum senium in Anglia fere 



vixit, Daniam etiam adiit." " Ad summam ajtatem usque bonus se- 



nex in plantis laboravit, et opus herbarium paravit, cui destinabat plan- 

 las a se ipso et ab uxore initineribus per Angliam lectas. Sed labori im- 

 raortuus est anno 1616." Haller. Bib. Bot. i. pp. 351, 353. 



•|- " Variat Iiebc species, et nunc ramulis est oblongis et teretibus, 

 de qua Lohelius et Ger. Em. p. 577, quae insida Sheppy pone Sheer- 

 ness subinde observatur : vel summitatibus planis latisve, caulibus vero 

 vel ramis augustioribus observatur : vel summitatibus est acuminatis, 

 caulibus autem latiusculis, crebris secundum longitudinem ramulis acu- 

 tis, comuum instar enascentibus, quas spongis ramosae alterius Anglicae 

 nomine a Parkinsono p. 1304, exhibetur, qu£e varietates specie forte dis- 

 tirigui merentur," Syn. i. p. 29. 



I 



