CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 441 



are corrected, and the definitions in general are abridged 

 and rendered less theoretical. To the Lithophyta he added 

 the genus Cellepora — " corallium cellulis cavis ;" — and he 

 followed Ellis and Pallas in now introducing the Sponges 

 into his second order. In this we also find, for the first 

 time, the genus Vorticella, which is nearly synonymous with 

 the BracMonns of Pallas ; the Flustra, which is the same 

 as Eschara of his preceding edition ; the Furia^ which is 

 an apocryphal animal ; and the Chaos, which is an infusory 

 animalcule. Were we to analyze the genera we should 

 find, in almost every one of them, species which properly 

 belong to a different class of animals, or whose characters 

 are at variance with those assigned to the genus : but many 

 of these misplacements were the almost necessary conse- 

 quences of the then state of knowledge relative to the beings 

 in question. 



Solander, in arranging the materials of Ellis, followed the 

 system of Pallas, but he introduced and placed the Actiniae at 

 the head of the order ; he entirely rejected all the intestinal 

 worms and infusory animalcules ; and he amended the defini- 

 tions of the genera by carefully avoiding all theoretical phra- 

 seology. He used the term " Zoophyta " exactly in the 

 same sense, and with the same latitude, that it is used in the 

 present work.* 



The method of Midler cannot be considered as any im- 

 provement on those of his predecessors, but there is an 

 attempt after novelty in it. He places the Actinia and the 

 Hydra among the Molhisca, an order full of heterogeneous 

 things, embracing the cuttle-fish, snails, and star-fish ; and 

 in the same order we find the beautiful Lucernaria, one of 

 the discoveries of this industrious and excellent naturalist. 

 The proper zoophytes he denominates Cellularia, which are 

 defined to be compound animals, enclosed in cells, and pro- 

 pagating by means of buds. The genera are classed and 

 defined as follows : 



* The natiu'al history of many curious and uncommon Zoophytes, by the late John 

 Ellis, systematically arranged and described by the late Daniel Solander. Lond. 

 178(5. 4to. 



