^"mj^'] I'KOCEICDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 125 



?. c, the Meduste, Sipbonophores, and Ilydroids, and (lie Coralliaires. 

 The Coialliaircs he agjiiu subdivided as follows: 

 (Jlass Coi'alliaires. 



Sub-class Cnidaria. 

 Order Alcyoiiaria. 

 " Zoantliaria. 

 Suborder Zoantliaria nuilacoderrnata or Actinaria. 

 Zoantliaria sclerobasica or Antipatharia. 

 Zoantliaria sclerodermata or Madropoiaria 

 Sub-class Podactiiiaria (^Luceriiaria). 

 It will be seen from this that Milne-Edwards's class Coralliaires is 

 equivalent to Dana's order Actinoidea, and his sub-class Cuidaria to 

 Dana's Actinaria minus Li(cenuiria, a, step toward the sei)aration of this 

 genus from the Anthozoa, and its reference.to the modern grou}) of the 

 Scyphozoa. In his division of the Zoantliaria, however, Milne-Edwards 

 retro.n'rades towards the older consistence systems of Lamouroux and 

 Ehrenberg. 



So far as the Actinaria are concerned Milne-Edwards did excellent 

 service in delimiting the various genera that had been ])roposed, in 

 dividing these up in some cases, and establishing lunv genera, such as 

 Paractis, Phymaefis, Oulacfi.s, etc., and in groiiiiing similar genera to- 

 gether, forming families, subfamilies, etc. His larger divisions aie as 

 follows: 



1. Family ActinulH'. 



1. Sub-family MiiiadnR. , 



2. Sul)-fa.mily Act in in a'. 



3. Sub-family Tlialassiantliiua^. 



4. Sub-family rbyllactina-. 



5. Snb-f'aniily Zoantbina^ 



2. Family ("criauthidje. 



The sub-family Actinina; was again subdivided into sections, thus: 



1. Actinincs vulfraircs — includiiig forms with smoofli walls and adh<noiit baso. 



2. Actinincs verrntiiii'uscs — includiuff forms with tubercles (tr verruca! u}i(in the 



coliMini. 



3. Actinincs perl'nrees — c(>rrcs]ioiiiling to tlie lainily ."'.agaitidac ol" nu)ro recent sys- 



tems. 



4. Actinincs pivotantes— includin<i forms which do not possess nn arlhereut ))asc. 



In analyzing this classification in the light of our present knowl- 

 edge of the relationships of the Anthozoan groups we note a recogni- 

 tion of most of the modern taxonomic groups, with, however, very 

 unequal values attached to them. Thus the Alcyonaria (;onstitute 

 a group equivalent to all the others taken together; the Antipatharia, 

 another of equal value with all that still remains; the Cerianthi(he 

 are recognized as a family equal in value to all the other Actinians; 

 while the Zoanthina' are etjuivalent only to the Thalassiaiithin.ne, etc. 

 The ICdwardsia' do not have a grouj) value, beingrecognized simply as 

 a genus of Actiiiines pivotantes, Avhere they are associated with Ilyau- 

 thus, Peathia, and tSphenopus^ the last belajiging properly to the Zoau- 



