Verrill^ Notes on Radiata. 495 



Family, Zoantiiid.e Daiui. 



Zoanthina (family) Ehr., Corall., des rothen Meeres. p. 45, ] 834. 



ZoantMnm (subfamilv) Edw. and H., Corall., i, p. 298, 1857; {pars) Duch. and Mich., 



op. cit, p. 49. 1860. 

 Zoanthidix. (family) Dana. Zoopli., p. 411, 1846; Gosse, Actin. Brit., p. 295, 1860; 



Verrill, Mem. Bo.^ton Soc. Nat. Hist., i, p. H4; Proc. Essex Inst, v, p. ;51G, 1868. 



Polyps attached by the base, usually compound, the buds arising 

 either from basal stolons or broad expansions. Integument either 

 smooth and naked, or thickened with imbedded and firmly adherent 

 grains of sand. 



In the number and arrangement of the internal lamellae and tenta- 

 cles, this family, and perhaps, also, the entire suborder, departs from the 

 ordinary rule among Actinaria and Madreporaria. The tentacles sel- 

 dom appear to present regular cycles in multiples of six. They are 

 ordinarily arranged in two akernating circles, each having the same 

 number, which is often an odd number, the entire numlKu- beinu', there- 

 fore, an even number, and the new tentacles appear to be hitroduced 

 in pairs at one side and symmetrically to a median plane passing 

 through the odd tentacles and the longer axis of the mouth and 

 stomach. 



Mammillifera Lesueur. 



Journal Phil. Academy, vol. i, p. 178. 1817; Ehr., op. cit., p. 36; Duch. and Mich.. 



Corall., des Antilles p. 51, 1860. 

 PalytJwa {pars) Dana, Zooph., p. 422, 1846; Edw. and Haime, Corall., i, p. 301, 1857. 



Compound, inci*easing by buds that arise from broad, membranous, 

 basal expansions, which at times may become in some parts narrow and 

 more or less linear, covering broad surfaces of stones, etc. Polyps 

 rather low, subcylindrical, or subcampanulate with a narrow base, in 

 contraction forming rounded verrucog, or low mammiforiu jjromi- 

 nences. Tissues throughout fleshy and smooth, covered Avith mucus, 

 but not agglutinating sand. 



By the smooth soft tissue of the polyps and basal membranes, this 

 genus is more nearly allied to typical ZoantJms, than to Palythoa 

 ( Cortlcifera), which has its integuments thickened by a layer of sand. 

 From Zoanthas it diflfers mainly in having smaller, shorter, or more 

 sessile polyps, and in the tendency to f >rm continuous basal membranes, 

 instead of linear stolons, but the latter character is not invariable even 

 in the same species. The tentacles are usually shorter and less muner- 

 ous. 



Trans. Coxxecticut Ac.\d., Vol. I. 63 M.\rch, 1869. 



