with a Description of a New Species, 105 



Beneden, and Peach, can only be mentioned, as their labours 

 must be familiar to all who are interested in the subject. 



One of the most important steps ever made to a complete 

 arrangement of the Polyzoa was that published by Dr. Busk 

 in the English Cyclopaedia, conducted by C. Knight,* and 

 published in 1856. The same author had already published, 

 in 1852, the first part of a catalogue of the Marine Polyzoa 

 contained in the collection of the British Museum. Between 

 the publication of the first part and the third in 1875, an 

 immense number not only of genera, but species, have been 

 created by various authors. Even to name a few, such as 

 Landsborough, Gosse, Hincks, Norman, D'Orbigny, Hassal, 

 Couch, Smitt, Gray, Lister, Macgillivray, Hyndman, Heller, 

 Fritsch, Forbes, Meneghini, Kirchenpaur, will show how the 

 subject has grown. In the meantime warning notes are 

 reaching us from every side that the present system of 

 classification is founded on very unstable ground. For the 

 great divisions probably there would be but little change, if 

 any, suggested, but for the smaller divisions, and especially the 

 genera, as the animals are better known and their mode of 

 grouping or building their frail tenements understood, some of 

 the generic distinctions are fading away. The master-mind 

 that will grasp the whole is yet to come, and we have only to 

 fear now that amid the multitude of workers it will be very 

 difficult to arrive at some common bond of agreement which 

 all naturalists will accept. It appears, however, that there 

 is a general disposition to accept a system of classification 

 such as Professor Lankester has put forth. Thus Polyzoa 

 are divided into the sub-classes : — 1, Holobranchia ; 2, Ptero- 

 branchia. The first into groups — Ectoprocta, which is 

 divided into the orders Phylactolsema and Gymnolsema, &c, 

 &c. There is at the same time evidence of various schools 

 which will represent the views of Lankester, Hseckel, or 

 Huxley, as the case may be.-f- 



I must not close this article without referring to the per- 

 sistent labours of the Rev. Thos. Hincks, F.R.S. He has 

 given himself so entirely and successfully to the study of 

 the Polyzoa that Australian species have already received 

 much elucidation from him. At the same time, his descrip- 

 tions are so full and satisfactory, and his drawings so 



* Natural Hist., Vol. 4, p. 415. 



t See " On Germinal Layers," &c, Ann. Nat. Hist., May, 1873 ; and 

 " On Embryology and Classification," Quart. Jour. Micros. Sc, Oct., 1879, 

 p. 393. 



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