CLASS ZOOPHYTA. 



Animals of radiate structure ; of gelatinous or fleshy 

 substance ; more or less column-shaped ; having, in general, 

 one end permanently attached or temporarily adherent to 

 foreign bodies ; the other end forming a flat disk surrounded 

 by one or more circles of tentacles, and pierced in the 

 centre by a mouth opening into the digestive cavity ; 

 furnished with offensive weapons in the form of capsules 

 imbedded in the tissues, each of which encloses a projectile 

 poisoning dart ; possessing no special organs of sense. 



ORDER ACTINOIDA. 



The visceral cavity inclosing the stomach, and divided 

 into compartments by perpendicular partitions of membrane 

 which support the reproductive organs ; germs ejected 

 through the mouth. 



SUB- ORDER ACTINARIA. 



Tentacles twelve or upwards, rarely warty ; membranous 

 partitions sometimes simple, sometimes depositing solid 

 calcareous plates, which, with the surrounding walls, con- 

 stitute the corallum. 



TRIBE I.— ASTR^EACEA. 

 Tentacles many, in imperfect series, or scattered ; coral- 

 lum (when present) calcareous, consisting of cells containing 

 many radiating plates ; the plates prolonged outward beyond 

 the cells which enclose them. (N.B. No known British 

 species of this Tribe deposits a corallum.) 



TRIBE II.— CARYOPHYLLACEA. 

 Tentacles many, in two or more series ; mostly increasing 

 by lateral buds ; generally depositing a corallum, which is 

 invariably calcareous, and many-rayed. 



