THE BOTANICAL LOOKER-OUT. 
145 
age. Sometimes similar excrescences are to be found on the ordinary spiculse 
which are fastened on the surface of the gemmules. 
All these marked forms of the silicious formations will surely furnish an easy 
means for distinguishing in future the species of the Spongilice of our waters. 
The discovery of these silicious formations upon the gemmules and in the 
substance of the Polypiferce , has lately excited much interest, Professor Turpin 
having very correctly ascertained the presence of the gemmules and their silicious 
masses in the Flint-stone of Bilin and Delitzseh, which he has beautifully 
delineated. He was led to these researches through observations on the gem¬ 
mules of Cristatella , whose remarkable investments with those of the gemmules 
of Alcyonella were discovered by me in 1828, and described in the Isis for 1830? 
and not by Graham Dalzell in 1834, as is unjustly asserted by Ehrenberg. 
In the last place I may remark, that the large silicious spiculse of Spongilla in 
many places are enclosed, or at least bound together, by a regular hardened 
silicious mass; and that they, as well as this mass and the spiculse, become 
perfectly loosened by water in the course of four or five years. 
THE BOTANICAL LOOKER-OUT, 
No. XIII.—JUNE. 
(Continued from p. 62.) 
w In every copse and sheltered dell, 
Displayed to the observant eye. 
Are faithful monitors, who tell 
How pass the hours and seasons by. 
The green-robed children of the Spring 
Announce the periods as they pass, 
Entwine with leaves Time’s feather’d wing, 
And deck with flowers his silent glass. 
And thus each flower and simple bell, 
That in our pathway scattered lie, 
Are Flora’s monitors that tell 
How fast the winged moments fly. 
Time will steal on with ceaseless pace. 
Yet lose we not the fleeting hours, 
While thus their fairy steps we trace, 
As light they dance among the flowers.” 
Charlotte Smith. 
VOL. V.—NO. XXXVI. 
T 
