The Protascads—as we will call the most ancient group of vegetable animals, represented by the Protascus-type—divided into two lines or branches, the Spongiæ and the Sea-nettles, or Acalephæ. I have shown in my Monograph of the Calcareous Sponges (vol. i. p. 485) how closely these two main classes of Zoophytes are related, and how they must both be derived, as two diverging forms, from the Protascus-form. The primary form of Spongiæ, which I have there called Archispongia, arose out of the Protascus by the formation of pores through its body-wall; the primary form of Sea-nettles, which I there called Archydra, developed out of the Protascus by the formation of nettle-organs, as also by the formation of feelers or tentacles.
The main-class or branch of the _Sponges_, _Spongiæ_, or _Porifera_, lives in the sea, with the single exception of the green fresh-water Sponge (Spongilla). These animals were long considered as plants, later as Protista; in most Manuals they are still classed among the primæval animals, or Protozoa. But since I have demonstrated their development out of the Gastrula, and the construction of their bodies of two cellular germ-layers (as in all higher animals), their close relationship to Sea-nettles, and especially to the Hydrapolyps, seems finally to be established. The _Olynthus_ especially, which I consider as the common primary form of calcareous sponges, has thrown a complete and unmistakable light upon this point.
The numerous forms comprised in the class of Spongiæ have as yet been but little examined; they may be divided into three legions and eight orders. The first legion consists of the soft, gelatinous _Mucous Sponges_ (Myxospongiæ), which are characterized by the absence of any hard skeleton. Among them are, on the one hand, the long-since-extinct primary forms of the whole class, the type of which I consider to be the Archispongia; on the other hand there are the still living, gelatinous sponges, of which the _Halisarca_ is best known. We can obtain a notion of the Archispongia, the most ancient primæval sponge, if we imagine the Olynthus (see Frontispiece), to be deprived of its radiating calcareous spiculæ.
The second legion of Spongiæ contains the _Fibrous Sponges_ (Fibrospongiæ), the soft body of which is supported by a firm, fibrous skeleton. This fibrous skeleton often consists merely of so-called “horny fibres,” formed of a very elastic, not readily destructible, organic substance. This is the case for instance in our common bathing Sponge (Euspongia officinalis), the purified skeleton of which we use every morning when washing. Blended with the horny, fibrous skeleton of many of these Sponges, there are numerous flinty spicula; this is the case for example with the fresh-water Sponge (Spongilla). In others the whole skeleton consists of only calcareous or silicious spicula which are frequently interwoven into an extremely beautiful lattice-work, as in the celebrated Venus’ Flower Basket (Euplectella). Three orders of fibrous sponges may be distinguished according to the different formation of the spicula, namely, Chalynthina, Geodina, and Hexactinella. The natural history of the fibrous sponges is of especial interest to the Theory of Descent, as was first shown by Oscar Schmidt, the greatest authority on this group of animals. In no other group, perhaps, can the unlimited pliability of the specific form, and its relation to Adaptation and Inheritance, be so clearly followed step by step; perhaps in no other group is the species so difficult to limit and define.