CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 
67 
In the outline this system is not very materially different from 
that of Cuvier, the deviations being sometimes for the better 
and sometimes for the worse. If the Polypi ciliati are to be 
numbered amongst proper zoophytes it is for the better to have 
them placed in a separate order ; but Zoantha is badly associat- 
ed with the Hydra, Coryne and the spurious Pedicellaria. The 
Polypi vaginati , considered as an order, is a most heterogene- 
ous collection ; and the manner in which it is subdivided into 
sections, although in general excellent and worthy of commen- 
dation, is yet far from unexceptionable ; and these exceptions 
are very obvious in the first, sixth and seventh sections, in which 
apolypous, or it may be vegetable productions, are mingled with 
real zoophytes. The characters which divide the Polypi tubiferi 
from the natantes are not of sufficient importance to be consider- 
ed ordinal, (it would have been preferable to have made them fa- 
milies in one order) ; and the location of the Encrinus in the latter 
is the result of a most unlucky conjecture.* As a systematist, how- 
ever, Lamarck has few equals, and probably, with the exception 
of Linnaeus, not a superior : there is no vagueness nor ambiguity 
about him, — all is clear, well arranged and ordered, and his 
characters, which are usually well chosen, are defined in expres- 
sive words and in a felicitous manner. These advantages have 
given his System great currency, and though the favour shewn to 
it has somewhat abated, it still holds its place, and is in frequent 
use, with those who are engaged in arranging local catalogues and 
museums. 
Dr Fleming is the only British naturalist who has attempted 
* According to Lamarck Nature could not have done otherwise than she has 
done, and we are repeatedly assured that his System is a naked exposition of her 
necessitated steps in calling organized beings into existence ! After announcing 
with an almost ludicrous degree of confidence and complacency, that this ficti- 
tious Power can only complicate animal organizations in successive gradation, he 
adds, — “ La connaissance de cette verite me suffit ; je reconnais le veritable rang 
des polypes, comme celui des infusoires ; j’aper^is les rapports quiles lient les 
uns aux autres, ainsi que ceux qui lient les families entr’elles ; enfin, je con^is 
les limites que la nature n’a pu franchir dans la composition de rorganization de 
ces animaux, d’apres celles que je decouvre dans ceux des classes superieures. 
Je puis done dire positivement, a 1’egard des polypes, comme a celui de bien 
d’autres, ce que la nature n’a pas pu faire.” Anim. s. Vert. ii. 8. — What a hu- 
miliating commentary and lesson have the discoveries of a few short years af- 
forded on this passage ! 
