BOTANY.
Art. XI. Descriptions of species of Sponges observed on the shores of Long-Island.
Art. XI. Descriptions of species of Sponges observed on the shores of Long-Island. By C. S. Rafinesque, Esq.
The sponges are one of the most singular productions of nature; and, even to this time, naturalists are divided in opinion respecting their real rank in the scale of organized beings. Some believe that they are animals, belonging to the class of polyps, next to the genus of alcyonium, while many contend that they are not animals, but plants, of the tribe of fuci, or marine vegetables. I am inclined to adopt this latter opinion, since in all those which I have seen, in Europe and America, no perceptible motion nor sensibility was to be discerned in any stage of their existence; and those who have acknowledged their animality, bring no stronger proof thereof than an occasional slight shrinking under the hand, and an animal smell, which are common to some marine plants.
Whatever be the truth on the subject, these doubtful opinions prove that they are of the many connecting links between animals and plants. This is not a proper place to decide this controversy; I mean merely to make known new species of this tribe of beings, which I observed last year, on the shores of Long-Island. Such a fragment will be, perhaps, the first attempt of the kind; when more species shall be known, the subject may be investigated with more certainty and accuracy.
1. Spongia albescens, Raf. (Whitish sponge.) Effuse, compressed, irregular, perforated, somewhat branched, unequally lobed, whitish, smooth; lobes truncated; cells porose, very minute, nearly equal; small unequal cells inside.
Found near Bath and Gravesend, in sandy bottoms. A large species, sometimes over a foot broad, of quite an irregular shape, rather flattened, about one inch thick; partly gibbose; concave now and then, and with large, irregular openings, as if large branches were anastomosed; circumference branched or lobed, very jagged, sinus obtuse, lobes elongated obtuse, truncate or flat, unequally divided. The substance is entirely of a cinereous white, outside and inside, of a soft and brittle nature, rather friable; covered outside with minute pores of an oblong or round shape, and full of small unequal cells inside.