1294 General Notes. [December, — 
peeped into, but the waters of the South are yet unexplored, 
while those of the West are but meagerly represented, 5 
A few suggestions, growing out of the experience of the writer 
during the past three or four years, may be useful in promoting — 
further effort. Pil). 
As a rule, though as usual with some exceptions, fresh-water — 
sponges growing exposed to the light are green, from the inclusion — 
of chlorophyl granules; but @// sponges do not habitually ex- 
pose themselves to the light, and the collector who merely gathers — 
what may be seen as his boat glides over them, or as he walks — 
along the bank of stream or pond, will miss some of the most — 
interesting forms. Again, the size of a mass of sponge depends, 
other things being equal, upon the length of time it has colo- 
nized, so to speak, the particular location upon which it is found. : 
It is believed, from the writer's observation, that the contents of 
a single statoblast will rarely develop in one year into a sponge 
of a size likely to attract attention, and at the end of the season — 
it dies, the sarcode slime disappears, and in many, perhaps most 
cases, the majority of its skeleton spicules are washed away. Be- : 
fore dying, however, there will have been formed, within oa 
meshes, from one to a dozen or more reproductive ies—the 
statoblasts or winter eggs of the sponge—of which number We 
may presume that an average of half a dozen may witi wna 
chances of the following winter, and, germinating in the sprog, 
their contents coalescing, will reclothe with a growth of aa 
the persistent spicules, and form others, so that the resultant we 
will, at the end of the second year, be at least six pe ee 
as its ancestor of the year before. Increasing year a dis 
something like this ratio, a few seasons coman E 
turbed growth, will give us a sponge several inch pper T 
which hay be the product of hundreds or thousands of stato- 
blasts. Bait’ timited 
In this part of the country, so far as observed in the eee 
i i ikely to be foune ‘ 
experience of the writer, the only sponges likely to of the two 
large dimensions, are the American representatives o 
original European species, now known as Spongilla 
and Meyenia fuviatilss, and the equally widely distri 
to rejoice in the full sunlight. or ee 
Though it is seldom safe to determine the species © i 
from its general form, or from surface indications 
