42 VINE : CLASSIFICATIOX OF THE PALAEOZOIC POLYZOA. 
few brief paragraphs in his work on " British Marine Polyzoa," p. cix. 
" They have been ranked among the worms by Lenckart, Gegenbaur, 
Schneider, and Ehlers, the two latter authors placing them near 
the Gephyrwa ; Barrois, though doubtful, inclines to connect them 
with the Rotifera ; Reichert would approximate them to the Coelen- 
terates ; Milne Edwards, Agassiz, Allman, Huxley, Ray Lankester, 
and others, either refer them to the MoUusca or place them in a 
dependency of this sub-kingdom, the Molluscoida I 
shall confine myself in a great measure to a statement of the grounds 
on which I hold tliat the Polyzoa are essentially Molluscan." 
Unfortunately for science, the promise shadow^ed forth in the 
preface to the monograph of the Silurian Fossils of the Girvan District 
in Ayrshire was not fully carried out. In the preface to the first 
Fasciculus, Messrs. Nicholson & Etheredge, jun. state (p. viii) : — 
" The only point about the corals worth mentioning is, that we have 
thought it advisable, in the meanwliile, to retain such forms as 
Ghwtetes and Fistulipora, in the Actinizoa, rather than keep them 
back till we come to deal with the Polyzoa. It may ultimately be 
shown that these forms should properly find their place among the 
latter, but this view cannot be regarded as proved, and there are 
considerable difticulties in the way of its adoption." The Polyzoa, 
so far as I am aware, liave never been described as yet from the 
Girvan district. 
In his work on the Genus Monticulipora (Ed. 1881), Professor 
H. A. Nicholson has entered fully into all the characteristics of the 
development, affinities, and systematic position of Monticulipora 
(pp. 56-78), and I believe that a close study of this part by the 
student of Fossil Polyzoa will dispel many loose ideas repecting the 
Zoological position of the group. Many of Professor Nicholson's 
remarks are based on Foreign, rather than British species, and my 
pretty full knowledge of Silurian forms, founded upon thousands of 
examples from the Wenlock Shales, compels me to draw a line at true 
Monticulipora, and not to include in the gToup forms that may, 
with some propriety, be placed much nearer to Polyzoa than to 
Monticulipora. I take, therefore, no exception to Nicholson's generic 
characters, but I select the following as a special diagnosis : — 
