Although there is some intergradation between the Briareidae on the one hand and the 



conian Family, on the other; and although there is evident relationship 



the Isidae, another holaxonian family, and the Melitodidae, iliis Section is of practical 



:i a treatment of the G a and serves t" segregate that great order into two groups 



which are fairly natural. 



Famil) Bw uu \da * rray. 



a pari Milne Edwards et Haime. Histoire Naturelle des l oralliaires, 1857, p. 



Gray. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Vol. IV, 1859, 11.443. 



Verrill. Memoirs Boston Society of Natural History, I. 1863, p. 10. 

 Pat Kölliker. Beitrage zur Kenntniss der PolyrJen, 1870, p. 1 1. 



Bria 5tuder. Versuch eines Systemes der Alcyonaria, 1887, p. 26. 



Briareida Wright and Studer. Challenger Reports, the Alcyonaria. [889, p. XXXI. 

 Briareida Bourne. A treatise on Zoology, part II, Chapter VI, 1900, p. 25. 

 Briareida Nutting. Alcyonaria of the Hawaiian Islands, iyoS, p. 51 



Mn Ni Edwards and Haime (1857) delined the "Briaracées" as follows: 

 * Polypieroide dont 1'axe est occupé par un tissu subéreux 011 spiculifère, ou par une 

 . ité vide". 



In accordance with this definition these writers included in the family the genera Briareum, 

 Sol ander ia, Paragorgia and Caelogorgia, the last of which, Ccelogorgia is not now regarded as 

 nginü in th« ■ Scleraxonia. 



G 1859) defines the family Briareida as follows: 



"Coral arborescent, fleshy, supported by a central axis formeel of numerous intertwined 

 form spicules". This writer includes but one genus, Briareum, in the family. 



\'i RKiii [867 71) includes the oenera Briareum, Paragorgia, Titanidium and, tenta- 



tively, his genus Callipodium which is not now regarded as belonging to the Gorgonacea at all. 



K (Lliker (1870) practical!)- adopts the definition of Milne Edwards and Haime, but 



es off the last part "ou par une cavité vide", thus excluding Ciclogorgia. I Ie divides the 



family into two sections, "Sympodidae" with an encrusting ccenenchyme and " Paragorgiaceae" 



in which the branched colony exhibits a differentiated cortical and nuclear portion or axis. This 



tion is practically identical with the Briaracea as ai present accepted. 



offers a definition which has stond without essential modification until the 

 ■ ut time, and a translation of which appeared in the Challenger Report, the Alcyonaria, 

 illows : 



"S nia in which the ccenenchyma consists of a polyp-bearing cortex and a medullary 



ince of closely packed spicules; these are either developed on the surfaces of an upright 



shrubby colony, or the latter is relegated to the interior of a cylindrical stem over which is 



id the former. In the lalt a more or less well-defined axis is formed which may be 



by nutritive canals, or may be <i n i t< • without them". 



thus fall into two sub-divisions Briareinse and Spongioderminse. 



