•)6 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 



liferous (Cellariadae), and of the articulated corallines (Coral- 

 lina), of Keratophyta, of the Eschara, of the English corals, of 

 sponges, .of the Alcyonium, and of tubular corals, under which 

 head he describes several of the more common tubicolous 

 worms, which are found on our coast, and which have no rela- 

 tionship whatever to the other subjects of his treatise. Look- 

 ing back on this arrangement from our present vantage ground, 

 it appears disorderly and very defective, but when we reflect how 

 fmperfect the knowledge of species was at that period, and how 

 crude the notions were on the nature and use of systems, we 

 may find much to commend in it. Some of the chapters indeed 

 contain a mixture of very dissimilar things, but others may be 

 justly considered as so many natural genera or families, which 

 subsequent naturalists had merely to subdivide and name. 



Linnffius — in every sense the first of systematists — published 

 the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758. In it the 

 avertebrate animals are arranged in two classes, Insecta and 

 Vermes, — and of the latter zoophytes, with the exception of Ac- 

 tinia which is placed amongst the mollusca, form the last two 

 orders which he named Lithophyta and Zoophyta. That we 

 may appreciate the nature and value of the changes proposed 

 subsequently to his time, it will be necessary to give the defini- 

 tions of his orders and genera. 



I. " LITHOPHYTA Mollusca coraposita, basin solidam sedifi- 



cantia. 

 TuBiPORA CoraUimn tubis cylindricis. 

 MiLT.EPORA CoraUium tubis obconicis teretibus. 

 Madrepora CoraUium tubis stellatis." 



II. " ZOOPHYTA PlantaB vegetantes floribus aniraatis. 



Isis Stirps radicata, lapidea, nuda, geniculis corneis. 

 GoRGONiA Stirps radicata, cornea, crustata, contlnua. 

 Alcyonium Stirps stuposa, corticata, contlnua. 

 TuBULARiA Stirps fistulosa, tunicata, subgeniculata. 

 Eschara Stirps papyracea, nuda, porosa. 

 CoRALLiNA Stirps fibrosa, crustata, artlculata : artlculls multi- 



florls. 

 Sertularia /.V^tVjo* fibrosa, nuda, artlculata: artlculls unifloris. 

 Hydra Stirps subradlcata, gelatlnosa, apice florifera. 

 Pennatula Stirpjs libera, pennata, basl ore instructa. 



