273 
Nature of the Spongilla friabilis. 
merous, small, yellow, globular bodies have been frequently ob- 
served in autumn, spread every where through the substance of 
the spongilla, and have greatly perplexed naturalists, — some con- 
sidering them as the grains of this supposed plant, while others 
regard them as ova deposited there by some aquatic insects. 
Linnaeus, in his Flora Suecka (1190-1191), speaks of grains 
found in this fresh water plant in autumn, though in his later 
works he seems to consider these grains as foreign bodies, and 
the spongilla as a species of sponge. Lamarck and the Danish 
naturalist Vahl, considered the spongilla to be merely a habita- 
tion constructed by the cristatella. Montagu, in the Wernerian 
Transactions , considered it as a nidus formed by some aquatic 
insects, for the reception of their ova. Lichtenstein, in the 
Trans, of the Nat. Hist. Soc. of Copenhagen, describes it as 
an agglutinated mass of the tubes of fresh-water tubulariae, re- 
maining empty after the death of the polypi. Pallas speaks of 
it as a shapeless mass, possessing no trace of life. Gmelin, like 
most of Lamarck’s predecessors, places it in the genus Spongia, 
and he makes the singular remark respecting the friabilis , that 
it serves as food for fishes. Lamouroux, in 1816, was satis- 
fied, from personal examination, that it is an animal resembling 
the group of true sponges ; but in his Expos. Method. 1821, 
he expresses himself convinced, from more recent observations, 
and particularly from the effects of light, heat, moisture, and 
air upon it, that it differs entirely from the marine sponge, and 
is merely a fresh- water plant. Lamarck still considers its ani- 
mal nature as far from being established, and has removed it to 
a great distance from the marine sponge. In this country, some 
naturalists, as Dr Fleming, regard it as an animal distinct from 
the sponge, while others spend their ingenuity in endeavouring 
to prove it a vegetable. Schweigger has examined two species 
of spongilla alive, Sp. pulvinata and Sp. ramosa , and states 
that they possess a gelatinous crust, as distinct as that of many 
marine sponges, and truly belong to that genus of animals ; 
while Blumenbach, who has performed many experiments on 
these substances in their living state at Gottingen, has not been 
able to discover a trace of animal nature in them, and believes 
them to be aquatic plants. But none of these writers have de- 
scribed to us its internal organization, nor afforded sufficient 
