72 THE DISCOVERERS 



one species, his dichotoma the same as oeulata, and the 

 number is completed by the introduction of the lacustris 

 and fluviatilis, which Ellis appears purposely to have ex- 

 cluded, probably fi*om entertaining doubts of their true na- 

 tui'c. — Two good species were soon afterwards figured by 

 SowERBY* in his British Miscellany, viz. Sp. pulchella and 

 Sp. cancellata, but the Sp. compacta of the same excellent 

 natiu*alist is but a state of the sponge like crumb-of-bread 

 of Ray. About the same time Professor Jameson disco- 

 vered some interesting species in the north of Scotland, 

 among wliich were new to Britain the *S^. ventilabrum and 

 infundibuliformis of Linnaeus, the Sp. Zetlandica, hitherto 

 uncharacterized, the Sp. compressa of Fabricius, and the 

 Tethya eydonium and lyncurium, which, in accordance with 

 the arrangements of the period, were referred to the genus 

 Alcyonium. 



It thus appears that at this date (December 1809) 15 dif- 

 ferent sponges were ascertained to be indigenous to Bri- 

 tain. But in 1812 the catalogue was greatly extended by 

 the researches of Colonel George Montagu who, in his 

 essay on Sponges, has described 39 native species, exclusive 

 of the fresh-water sort, and with an accuracy which no pre- 

 vious natxu'alist had deemed necessary. The following is a 

 list of them arranged under their " families" as proposed 

 by himself: 



* Mr James Sowcrby, eminent as a naturalist and artist, and by whose 

 labours the taste for botany in this country was greatly enlarged, died on 

 October 25, 1822, after a long and severe illness. " His patient and 

 indefatigable labours m several branches of natural history are well known 

 to the scientific world ; and he contributed in various ways to the ad- 

 vancement of natural knowledge." Annals of Philosophy, n. s. iv. p. 397- 



