§go SPONGES. 
cilia driving the water in ceaseless torrents, whirling along all kinds of solid 
particles, arresting those which are useful for digestion, and rejecting those 
with which it cannot assimilate. 
The extraordinary object which is called by the appropriate name of 
NEPIUNES CUP is One of the most maguificent, as weli as one of the most 
notavle, of the Sponge uibe. It hardly looks like a Sponge; and when a 
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NEPTUNE'S cUP.—( Thalassema Neptuni.) 
specimen is shown to persons who have no knowledge of the subject, they 
can hardly ever be maue to believe that the exhibitor is not endeavouring to 
play a practical joke upon them, 
The Neptune’s Cup is of enormous dimensions, often measuring four feet 
in height, and having a corresponding width. Its exterior is rough, gnarled, 
and knotted like the bark of some old tree ; and if a portion were removed 
from the side, it might almost be mistaken for a piece of cork-tree bark. 
Many persons have imayined that the strangely-shaped object was made of 
the skin of an elephant’s leg, and I have even heard a teacher telling her 
pupils that it was an old Roman wine-jar. 
This is one of the exotic Sponges, being found only in the hotter seas, 
