Although there is some intergradation between the Briareidae on the one hand and the 

 Gorgonellidae, a holaxonian family, on the other ; and although there is evident relationship 

 between the Isidae, another holaxonian family, and the Melitodidae, this Section is of practical 

 use in a treatment of the Gorgonacea and serves to segregate that great order into two groups 

 which are fairly natural. 



F'amily Briareid.e Gray. 



Briaracees (in part) Milne Edwards et Haime. Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires, 1857, p. 188. 

 Briareidce Gray. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Vol. IV, 1859, p. 443. 

 Briareidce Verrill. Memoirs Boston Society of Natural History, I, 1863, p. lo. 

 ParagorgiacecE Kölliker. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Polypen, 1870, p. 11. 

 Briar Ida; Studer. Versuch eines Systemes der Alcyonaria, 1887, p. 26. * 



Briar eida Wright and Studer. Challenger Reports, the Alcyonaria, 1889, p. XXXI. 

 Briareidce Bourne. A treatise on Zoology, part H, Chapter VI, 1900, p. 25. 

 BriareidiC Nutting. Alcyonaria of the Hawaiian Islands, 1908, p. 569. 



Milne Edwards and Haime (1857) defined the "Briaracees" as follows: 



" Polypieroide dont Taxe est occupe par un tissu subereux ou spiculifere, ou par une 

 cavlte vide". 



In accordance with this definition these writers included in the family the genera Briareiiin^ 

 SoIa7ideria, Paragorgia and Ccelogoi'gia^ the last of which, Cixlogorgia is not now regarded as 

 belonging in the Scleraxonia. 



Gray (1859) defines the family Briareida- as follows: 



"Coral arborescent, fleshy, supported by a central axis formed of numerous intertwined 

 fusiform spicules". This writer includes but one genus, Briareiim^ in the family. 



Verrill (1867 — 71) includes the genera Briare7iin^ Paragorgia, Titanidituii and, tenta- 

 tively, his genus Callipodiiun which is not now regarded as belonging to the Gorgonacea at all. 



Kölliker (1870) practically adopts the definition of Milne Edwards and H.ume, but 

 leaves off the last part "ou par une cavite vide", thus excluding Co:logorgia. He divides the 

 family into two sections, "Sympodidee" with an encrusting coenenchyme and " Paragorgiaceae" 

 in which the branched colony exhibits a differentiated cortical and nuclear portion or axis. This 

 second section is practically identical with the Briaracea as at present accepted. 



Studer (1887) offers a definition which has stood without essential modification until the 

 present time, and a translation of which appeared in the Challenger Report, the Alcyonaria, 

 1889, as follows : 



"Scleraxonia in which the ccenenchyma consists of a polyp-bearing cortex and a medullary 

 substance of closely packed spicules; these are either developed on the surfaces of an upright 

 shrubby colony, or the latter is relegated to the interior of a cylindrical stem over which is 

 spread the fijrmer. In the latter case a more or less well-defined axis is formed which may be 

 penetrated by nutritive canals, or may be quite without them". 



The Briareidce thus fall into two sub-divisions Briareinae and Spongioderminae. 



