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RAMBLES IN FLORIDA. 455 
shade. All sponges are aquatic, and with few exceptions 
marine. They attach themselves to all manner of objects 
which may present a point of support, whether floating or 
fixed; some select their abode on very unexpected objects. 
In one case recorded in the "Natural History of British 
Sponges," by Dr. Johnson, a specimen belonging to the 
genus Halichondria, a sponge not uncommonly found on 
some of our coasts, was discovered growing from the back 
of asmall live crab, —"a burden" says the learned Doctor, 
"apparently as disproportionate as was that of Atlas, — and 
yet the creature has been seemingly little inconvenienced 
With its arboreous excrescence.” The fresh-water sponge 
(Aleyoncila stagnorum) is frequently to be met with floating 
in docks attached to logs of timber. It is very interesting 
to observe that these low organisms even seem to be at- 
tracted to each other, as it were in family groups. The 
Aleyonelle live in groups of from ten to fifteen, and some 
Sponges are so intimately connected as to be inseparable. 
Respecting their geographical distribution they are to be 
met with in all seas, and although they abound to a much 
greater extent in the tropics, even on the coast of Great 
Britain a great many species occur, nearly forty having been 
reckoned to belong to one genus alone. 

RAMBLES IN FLORIDA. 
BY R. E. C. STEARNS. 

PART IV. i 
Ir was nearly noon of a delightful day in February when 
leaving the City of Tampa we crossed the Hillsborough 
River to the opposite bank for the purpose of visiting Rocky 
Point, which is situated upon old Tampa Bay ; the route, for 
greater part of the distance of seven miles, is through an 

