CH^TETID^ AND MONTICULlPORIDyE. 259 



the evidence now before us, in removing the MonticnliporidcB 

 from the Actinozoa, and that we may provisionally regard them 

 as a special group of Alcyonaria. It should also be borne 

 in mind In this connection that we are at present quite un- 

 acquainted with the animal of Heteropora, and that it is just 

 possible that an examination of the soft parts of this type 

 — admittedly a very aberrant form of the Polyzoa — might 

 show it to be a Coelenterate. At the same time, I do not at all 

 mean to deny but that some of the fossils which have been 

 described by various palaeontologists under the names of Mon- 

 ticulipora, Fistulipora, or Callopora, are probably really Polyzoa, 

 Erroneous determinations of this kind, especially where micro- 

 scopic examination has not been resorted to, are almost inevit- 

 able ; but they do not affect the systematic position of the 

 forms which are recognised as the types of Monticulipora and 

 of the genera related to this. 



