1G1 
Classification of the British Polyzoa. 
there would be the weightiest reasons for respecting his prac¬ 
tice if this designation had not been so variously used that 
nothing but confusion seems likely to be caused by per¬ 
petuating it. It was first introduced by Gray, accompanied 
by an unintelligible diagnosis, for a miscellaneous group of 
Lepralice , none of them referable to the present genus. 
D’Orbigny afterwards connected it with a very definite form, 
allied to our Cribrilina (or identical with it), and made it the 
type of a family, the Escharellidaj. Smitt himself has not 
been very constant in his mode of applying the name, having 
first given it to a somewhat heterogeneous collection of species 
and afterwards to a mere section of it. 
It seems undesirable that terms which have been thus 
bandied about until they have been emptied of all fixed 
meaning should be retained. Science is only confused by 
the perpetuation of names which have been used as labels, 
now for one form and now for another. And especially may 
it be deemed objectionable to appropriate and put to a totally 
different use a term which has a place in so important a work 
as the ‘ Paldontologie Framjaise.’ I have great pleasure in 
substituting for this questionable name another which com¬ 
memorates one of the most able workers in this department of 
zoology. 
This is a very natural and well-defined generic group, and 
includes the following British species:— 
Species: S. Landsborovii, Johnston. 
S. porif era, Smitt. 
S. crystallina , Norman (?var. of Landsborovii). 
S. reticulata , Macgillivray. 
S. a finis, Hincks. 
S. trispinosa , Johnston. 
S. cheilostoma, Manzoni. 
N. marmorea , Hincks. 
/S', bella, Busk. 
Phylactella *, nov. gen. 
Zocecia with the primary orifice more or less semicircular, 
the lower margin sometimes dentate, surrounded by an elevated 
peristome, which is not produced or channelled in front. No 
avicularia. 
Species: P. labrosa, Busk. 
P. collar is, Norman. 
P. eximia, Hincks. 
* From (pvXaKTos , fortified. 
Ann. & May. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. iii. 
11 
