CLASS III.— ORDER I. 
G ENERA AND SPECIES. 
EPHYDATIA. 
Polypidoms of freshwater; spongy in their nature, 
greenish, in long masses, which are lobed or bundled 
together. 
Recent observations have decided on the removal 
of this genus from the vegetable tribes, among which 
former philosophers had placed it, and have now 
stationed it among the Polypidoms of the Spongia, 
chiefly distinguishing it from that genus by its fresh- 
water residence. It resembles the marine Spongia 
by the gelatinous mucus which surrounds the mass 
and fibres, and which disappears on desiccation ; by 
the very fetid smell it yields when burning or 
decomposing, and also by the quantity of lime ex- 
