THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATUEAL HISTORY, 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 

 No. 107. NOVEMBER 1896. 



LIII. — Suggestions for a Natural Classification of the 

 Asconidae. By E. A. Minchin, M.A., Fellow of Mertoa 

 College, Oxford. 



Although various schemes for classifying the Ascons and 

 grouping them into genera have been proposed at different 

 times, few, except, perhaps, the authors responsible for these 

 systems, would pretend that they any of them represent the 

 true natural affinities of the species amongst themselves. The 

 so-called " natlirliches System " published by Hackel in his 

 famous monograpli* of the Calcarea, probably the best-known 

 classification of the group, with its seven genera founded 

 exclusively on spicule characters, is a good instance to the 

 point, for here we see, to take a single case, such closely 

 allied forms as coriacea, lacunosa, and contorta separated from 

 one another, and the last-named species placed in a genus 

 together with species so distinct from it as Lieberkuhnii and 

 complicata, which, in their turn, are separated from their near 

 ally hotryoides. Aloreover, Hackel's genera, even had they 

 been absolutely natural, must sooner or later have been 

 renamed, since he put on one side without scruple all the 

 well-known laws of priority with regard to nomenclature 

 which are now as fully recognized by zoologists on the Con- 

 tinent as in England. Exactly the same criticism applies to 



• < Die Kalkschwamme ' (Berlin, 1872). 

 Ann. tfc Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xviii. 25 



