ON THE GENUS LUCERNARIA. 279 
independently of Leuckart, decided upon separating Lucer- 
naria entirely from the Netnie and divided their sub-class 
Corallaria imto three orders—Zoantharia, Aleyonaria, and 
Podactinaria, the last consisting only of the genus Lucer- 
naria. Muilne-Edwards afterwards, came still nearer to 
Leuckart’s view, when he admitted only two sub-classes— 
* Cnidaires”’ and “ Podactinaires’’-—into his class Corallia, 
and, as unhesitatingly as Leuckart, regarded the single genus 
Lucernaria as equivalent to the whole of the Anthozoa. 
As Cuvier’s views at first had gained general acceptance, 
so those of Leuckart and Milne-Edwards were now adopted 
by several authors, as Troschel, Bronn, &c., who recognised 
the genus Lucernaria as the type of a distinct division among 
the polyps, whilst Gegenbaur, strangely enough, placed it 
in the order Octactiniz, in which, however, no previous sys- 
tematist had ventured to put it. 
Having thus pointed out the two places occupied in suc- 
cession by Lucernaria in systematic works, in one of which 
we find it associated with Actinia, and in the other to con- 
stitute a division of the Corallide, we come to the third and 
last phase in its systematic fate, im which we are carried back 
almost to Lamarck’s view, and brought to recognise its affinity 
with the Meduside. 
Lucernaria owes its new position to Huxley, by shot the 
entire division of the Medusidie is denominated Lucernaride ; 
in this view he is fully supported by Reay Greene and 
Allman, the latter recognising in Lucernaria a still closer 
affinity with the naked-eyed than with the covered-eyed 
Medusze. Agassiz also places Lucernaria im a similar place 
among the hydroid polypes, and remarks upon its similarity 
more especially with a young Medusa; but in my opinion he 
goes too far, when he compares it most nearly to the Strobila- 
form. ‘This opinion with respect to the position of Lucer- 
naria with respect to the Medusee has hitherto met with little 
assent, and in no systematic work has this much-vexed genus 
been placed i in this, as it appears to me, true place. Schlegel, 
in his ‘Manual of Zoology,’ approaches nearest to its proper 
position in placing Lucernaria amongst the hydroid polypes. 
2. Systematic place.-—From the description above given of 
the structure of Lucernaria, it has been made clear how, in all 
essential parts, this apparently so abnormal a genus corre- 
sponds with the Meduse, and that a correct notion of its 
form and the disposition of its organs may be arrived at when 
it is regarded as a fixed and pedunculate Medusa-bud, in 
which the stomach has been formed, and is open at the end, 
