BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 15 



" Challenger Heports " devoted to the Actiaiaria. In 

 the latter publication is contained a summary of his 

 own and his brothei''s researches. 



Mr. Busk has also published a Catalogue of the 

 British Museum Collections, of .Polyzoa, which is illus- 

 trated by accurate and beautiful plates of many of the 

 species described. This catalogue is not confined to 

 British species. In addition to the writers named, 

 many others whose names and works are referred to 

 in the Appendix, have contributed to our knowledge of 

 the species of Zoophytes, and of their structure and 

 life- history. 



The chief present authorities on the British Polyzoa 

 and Hydroida are the valuable and exhaustive mono- 

 graphs on those branches (published, the former in 

 1868, and the latter in 1880) by the Rev. Thomas 

 Hincks, F.R.S., of Budleigh Salterton, Devon, and 

 the monograph on the Tubularian Hydroids by Prof. 

 Allman, published by the Ray Society.* These books, 

 from the accuracy of the descriptions and the beauty 

 and completeness of the illustrative plates, will long 

 continue the text-books on the subjects with which 

 they deal. This review of the history of our know- 

 ledge of the Zoophytes is necessarily short ; but, brief 

 and incomplete as it is, enough has been said to show 

 that this beautiful and important group of animals has 

 long attracted the attention of the scientific world, 

 and has been repeatedly and carefully studied. The 

 labours of naturalists spent in unravelling the 

 mysteries of Nature may often appear trifling and 



* Prof. Allman is engaged in investigating the Hydroida of the 

 " Challenger " Expedition, and his first communicatioa on the 

 P^MywM^anrftg has just appeared. 1883. 



