no 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
by Linnaeus, Guettard, Donati, Lamouroux, and Ebrenberg, on the 0^' 
tinent, and by Ellis, Fleming, and Grant in England. They live 
the bottom of the seas in live to twenty-five fathoms of water, a nroc£ 
the clefts and crevices of the rocks, always adhering and attach^ 
themselves, not only to inorganic bodies, but even growing on ve£ e ' 
tables and animals, spreading, erect, or pendent, according to the body 
which supports them and their natural habit. 
The power of fixing themselves to other objects, which certa' 11 
animals .possess, is very singular. Nevertheless, it is certain 
whole tribes exist consisting of innumerable strictly adherent specie 3 ’ 
which live and die attached to some rock or other object ; ^ 
among these are all polypiers, such as the sponges and corallines. ® 
follows that they are wholly dependent on external agencies for thwf 
means of existence. “ The poor little creatures;’ says Allred Fred 0 ** 
“ receive their nourishment from the wave which washes past the*® * 
they inhale and respire the bitter water all their lives ; they are insd 1 ' 
sible to that which is only the hundredth part of an inch from tb# c 
mouth.” 
In the months of April and May, these animalcules engender geri fl3, 
round, yellow, or white, whence proceed certain ovoid granular embrf° s 
furnished towards their largest extremity with small vibratile ci^ 
They are thrown off by the currents, which serve as a stomach, ^ 
form swarms of larvae round the polypier. They swim about with 9 
gliding wavy motion, and when they have been some time in the w» ter 
they usually come to the surface; but they are also often carried off W 
the current. During two or three days they seem to seek a convent 
place -to fix themselves. Once fixed, the larvae loses the cilia, spread 
itself out, and takes the form of a flattened gelatinous disk. 
Its interior organization consists of contractile cellules and nuiiiero’ 3 ’’ 
spicuke— “a tribe,” says Gosse, “of the most debateable forms of 1$’ 
long denied a right to stand in the animal ranks at all, and even s fil1 
admitted there doubtmgly and grudgingly by some excellent natru' r 
lists. Yet such they certainly are, established beyond reason^ 
controversy as true and proper examples of animal life.” 
It may, then, be safely asserted that all naturalists are now satis^ 
of the animal nature of sponges, although they represent the 1 oW est 
and most obscure grade of animal existence, and that so close to & e 
confines of the vegetable world, that it is difficult in some species 40 
