CLASSIFICATION OF ZOOPHYTES. 109 



relations, and then to map them out, rather than force the devious 

 windings of nature into circles large and small.* 



109. Subdivisions of Zoophytes. The orders Hydroidea and Acti- 

 noidea, have already been laid down as the primary subdivisions of 

 zoophytes. The order Actinoidea has been again divided into the 

 sub-orders Actinaria and Alcyonaria. The Alcyonaria, according to 

 most authors, constitute one of the grand divisions equivalent to 

 Hydroidea and Actinoidea. But the general identity in structure 

 and mode of reproduction, and other coincidences stated in the pre- 

 ceding pages, seem fully to justify the arrangement adopted. In the 

 subordinate groupings, the actual character of the animals has been 

 considered of superior importance to the mere absence or presence 

 of coral secretions. Olivi long ago correctly stated that the consi- 

 deration of the presence or absence of calcareous secretions was of 

 no more importance in zoophytes, than in the Mollusca.f 



110. The farther subdivision of the sub-order Actinaria, into the 

 four tribes Astrseacea, Caryophyllacea, Madreporacea, and Antipa- 

 thacea, is based upon the structure of the polyps and their mode of 

 budding. The fleshy Actinia? belong to this sub-order, and possibly 

 we may yet find among them representations of all the several tribes. 

 Yet, as they are not budding species, excepting the Zoanthidae, and 

 their distinctive internal characters have not been laid down, they 

 have all been retained for the present in the same tribe, Astrseacea. 

 The Antipathi have been arranged by some with the Gorgonite, and 

 by others of late, with the Bryozoa.J They have no relation to the 

 latter, and but little to the former ; their tentacles are quite similar in 

 appearance to those of the Madrepores, although but six in number. 

 The family Fungidse has not hitherto been recognised as a distinct 



* The Bryozoa, Rotifera, and Entozoa, are by no means the only links between the 

 Protozoa and the other sub-kingdoms ; on the contrary, the direct affiliations, and the 

 analogical connexions which arise from parallel gradations of developements in separate 

 and often distant groups, are numerous, and a long series of investigations will be required 

 before they can be fully made out. In the Baccillarise, and others of the Pseudopoda, we 

 appear to distinguish the Echinoderm and Acaleph form developed in an infusorial struc- 

 ture. The sponges, also, belong here, if animal, as Dujardin urges, 1 and seem, in like 

 manner, to represent the Zoophyta. 



t Zoologia Adriatica, Bassano, 1792. See Blainville's Man. d'Actin., p. 30. 



% Ehrenberg, op. cit., 357 ; also, M. Perty, Allgemeine Naturgeschichte, as quoted in 

 Oken's Isis, 1841, p. 371. 



1 Annales des Sci. Nat., x., 5, 1838. 

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