CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 65 



almost in juxtaposition, as the Sponges and the Gorgoniae. The 

 merits of Lamouroux have always appeared to me to have been 

 much overrated : it is a very easy matter, by arbitrarily fixing 

 on this or that character, to set in order any given number of 

 objects in any pattern we may choose, and Lamouroux had no 

 higher notion of the character of a systematist than this, and 

 acted accordingly. It is very true that he named and distinguish- 

 ed many genera, but who, on critically examining these genera, 

 will deny that he proceeded without caution and without judg- 

 ment,— determined apparently to make as many as could be 

 made that his successors might be spared the unprofitable task 

 of coining and inventing names ! * 



System of Lamarck. (1816.) 



Class POLYPI. 

 Order I. P. ciliati. 

 Polypes without tentacula, but having near the mouth, or at its ori- 

 fice, vibratile cilise or ciliated and rotatory organs which agitate 



or whirl the water. 



I. ^gc«Jo».— ViBRATiLES.— Rattulus, Tiichocerca, Vaginicola. 



II. Section. Rotiferes. — FoUiculina, Brachionus, Furcularia, 



Urceolaria, Vorticella, Tubicolaria. 



Order II. P. denudati. 

 Polypes with tentacula, without an envelope or polypidom, and fixed 

 either permanently or spontaneously. 



Hydra Coryne — Pedicellaria — Zoantha. 



Order III. P. vaginati. 

 Polypes with tentacula, invariably fixed in an inorganic polypidom 

 which envelopes them ; and forming, in general, compound animals. 



* Polypidoms of homogeneous composition. 

 I. Section. Polypiers fluviatiles.— Difflugia, Cristatella, 

 Spongilla, Alcyonella. 



* BlainviUe in criticising Lamouroux's latest work, says—" Nous nous bor- 

 nerons a dire que Lamouroux a encore considerablement augraente le nombre 

 des genres, surtout parniiles polypiers pierreux, pour y placer un grand nombre 

 de corps organises fossiles, trouves dans le calcaire a polypiers de Caen, et que 

 malheureusement la plupart de ces genres sent mal caracterises, ce dent je me 

 suis assure directement sur les objets memes qui out servi a ses observations. 

 Man. d'Actinol. p. 54. 



