Note 194 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
The Mediterranean and American sponges of commerce are devoid of spicules, and are deprived of their soft animal matter simply by washing freely in fresh water.
[195] I particularly allude to a siliceous Sponge from Barbadoes, named, by Mr. Samuel Stutchbury, formerly of the Bristol Institution, (now of Australia.) Dictyochalix pumicea. This specimen is of a fungiform shape, and appears to the naked eye as if formed of pumice stone, but under the microscope is literally a tissue of transparent silex.