CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 451 



is a most heterogeneous collection ; and the manner of its 

 subdivision into sections, although in general excellent and 

 worthy of commendation, is yet far from unexceptionable ; 

 and these exceptions are very obvious in the first, sixth, and 

 seventh sections, in which apolypous, or it may be vegetable 

 productions, are mingled with real zoophytes. The charac- 

 ters which divide the Poly]pi tubiferi from the natantes are not 

 of sufficient importance to be considered ordinal (it would 

 have been preferable to have made them families in one 

 order) ; and the location of the Encrinus in the latter is the 

 result of a most unlucky conjecture.* As a systematist, 

 however, Lamarck has few equals, and probably, with the 

 exception of Linnseus, not a superior :f there is no vagueness 

 nor ambiguity about him, — all is clear, well arranged and 

 ordered, and his characters, which are usually well chosen, 

 are defined in expressive words and in a felicitous manner. 

 These advantages have given his System great currency, and 

 though the favour shewn to it has somewhat abated, it still 

 holds its place, and is in frequent use, with those who are 

 engaged in arranging local catalogues and museums.^ 



* According to Lamarck, Nature could not have done otherwise than she has done, 

 and we are repeatedly assured that his System is a naked exposition of her neces- 

 sitated steps in calling organized beings into existence ! After announcing with an 

 almost ludicrous degree of confidence and complacency, that this fictitious Power can 

 only complicate animal organizations in successive gradation, he adds, — " La con- 

 naissance de cette verite me suffit ; je reconnais le veritable rang des polypes, comme 

 celui des infusoires; j'aperqois les rapports qui les Kent les uns ausc autres, ainsi que 

 ceux qui lient les families entr'elles; enfin, je conqois les limites que la natiu-e n'a pu 

 franchir dans la composition de I'organization de ces animaux, d'apres celles que je 

 decouvre dans ceux des classes superieures. Je puis done dire positivement, a I'egard 

 des polypes, comme a celui de bien d'autres, ce que la nature n'a pas pu faire." 

 Anim. s. Vert. ii. 8. — What a humiliating commentary and lesson have the dis- 

 coveries of a few short years afforded on this passage ! 



t I have pleasure in referring the reader to Mr. Macleay's high estimate of this 

 naturalist in his Hor. Ent. pt. ii. p. 328-9. — "Lamarck, auquel M. Bory de Saint- 

 Vincent, non moins que nous son admirateur, donna le premier avec raison le titre de 

 Limit fran^ais." — Deshayes, Traite Elem. de Conchyliologie, i. p. 27. 



X An outline of the classification of Dr. August Friedrich Schweigger, from his 

 "Handbuch der Naturgeschichte," &c. Leipzig, 1820. 



Classis.— ZOOPHYTA. 

 Divisio A. — Zoophyta monohyla. 

 Corpus ex unica substantia constructum. 

 Ordo. — Monohyla brachiata. 



Fam. 1. — Monohyla hydriformia=Po\yT^i denudati, Lam. 



Fam. 2. 



