ANIMALS. 



Of the five pnmaiy divisions into which the Animal Kingdom may be divided, 

 namely, Sponyia, Badiata, Articulafa, Mollusca, and Vcrtcbrata, the whole had repre- 

 sentatives during the remote period, the Natural History of which, pertaining to a 

 limited area, it is proposed to describe in the present Monograph. 



Sub-kingdom SPONGIA, Auct.' 



Sa-oyyos, Aristotle. 

 Spongia (Genus), Linnceus. 

 Ceratopiiyta si'OXGiosA, Schweiffffer. 

 PoRiFERA (Class), Grant. 

 Spongiad-E, Fleming. 

 Amorpiiozoa, Blainville. 

 Spoxgiaires (Family), Milne Edwards. 

 Gelatixifera, Hoc/g. 



Diagnosis. — " Organized bodies growing in a variety of forms, permanently rooted, 

 unmoving and unirritable, fleshy, fibro-reticular, or irregularly cellular, elastic and 

 bibulous, composed of a fibro-corneous axis or skeleton, often interwoven with siliceous 

 or calcareous spicula, and containing an organic gelatine in the interstices and interior 

 canals ; reproduction by gelatinous granules generated in the interior, but in no 

 special organ."^ 



Dr. Grant, to whom naturalists are much indebted for some interesting particulars 

 on Sponges, divides the group into the three orders — Ilalinida (with siliceous spicula), 

 Leuconida (with calcareous spicula), and Keratosa (consisting principally of horny 

 species) -^ but, as it is not yet ascertained to which of these groups the Sponges 

 hereafter noticed belong, it is deemed advisable to waive all discussion on the several 

 interesting points involved in the consideration, and to pass on to the genera to which 

 they appear to belong, taking simply their external characters as the means of 

 identification. It may be premised, that Mr. Bowerbank has demonstrated the 



' Dr. Johnston, A History of British Sponges and Lithophytes, p. 78, 1842. 



- British Annual and Epitome of the Progress of Science for 1838, p. 267. In addition to the orders 

 proposed by Dr. Grant, the singular genus Dgsidcea, Johnston, (" spongious, with imbedded inorganic 

 grains of sand,") may hereafter be considered as the type of another order. 



