CLASSIFICATION. 3 



* 



Edwards and Haime during the progress of their classical 

 monograph on the Fossil Corals of Britain ; many new genera 

 were added ; and the tribe of the Stylophyllince, to include the 

 curious Cretaceous genus Stylophyllum, Reuss, was inserted 

 in the family of the FavositicUe. Most of the changes here 

 indicated, which it would be needless to point out in detail, 

 are to be found incorporated in the systematic account of the 

 " Tabulata" given by Milne-Edwards in his masterly ' Histoire 

 Naturelle des Coralliaires' (vol. iii., 1860). 



The first serious attack upon the classification of Milne-Ed- 

 wards and Haime, and upon the position of the " Tafiutata" was 

 made by Professor Louis Agassiz, who in 1857 examined the 

 living animal of Millepora t and arrived at the conviction that 

 this genus was truly Hydrozoal (Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, 

 ser. 2, vol. xxvi. p. 140, 1858; Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. vi. p. 373, 1859). This conclusion has since been fully 

 borne out by the researches of Mr Moseley, to be subse- 

 quently referred to ; but Professor Agassiz based upon his 

 discovery a further conclusion which certainly was not war- 

 ranted by the known facts namely, that the Hydrozoal nature 

 of Millepora sufficiently proved all the so-called " Tabulate 

 Corals " to be referable to the Hydrozoa. 



Shortly after the publication by Professor Agassiz of his 

 unexpected discovery as to the Hydrozoal nature of Millepora, 

 Professor Verrill investigated the anatomy of the " Tabulate " 

 genus Pocillopora, Lam., and showed that the animal of this 

 Coral was a true Zoantharian, referable to the Aporosa, and 

 allied to the Oculinidce (Review of the Corals and Polypes of 

 the W. Coast of America, Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. i. pp. 2, 523, 

 1870; and Affinities of the Tabulate Corals, Proc. Amer. 

 Assoc. for Adv. of Science, p. 148, 1867). Professor Verrill 

 likewise, even at this date (Trans. Conn. Acad., loc. '/.), 

 powerfully supported the view that the Favositidce are not 

 only true Actinozoa, but that they are really referable to the 

 Zoantharia. In the year 1872 the same high authority pub- 

 lished an important memoir upon " The Affinities of the Palse- 



