Contributions to the anatomy of anthropoid apes / by Frank E. Beddard.

  • Frank Evers Beddard
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to the anatomy of anthropoid apes / by Frank E. Beddard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    value of classifications that have been seriously put forward in easily accessible publi- cations ; but not only is my group, the Stolonifera, passed over in silence, but the name is actually employed for a division of the genus Clavularia, without one word of comment or apology. Anyone who is not well acquainted with the literature of the group might quite easily infer, on reading the ‘ Challenger ’ report, that the term “ Stolonifera ” is used for the first time by these authors. It is quite in keeping with such work as this that no attempt is made in the volume cited to discuss the value of the genera of the family Cornulariidae (Clavulariidse), which have recently been proposed without sufficient reason or description; that the peculiar mode of budding of Clavu- laria viridis is not referred to 1; and that, in a word, the whole group remains in the same state of confusion that it was in before the publication of that colossal memoir. ' Classification of the Alcyonciria. The Order Alcyonaria may be conveniently divided into the following five Sub- orders :— 1. Protoalcyonaria . Haimeia, Hartea. n „ f Fam. 1. Clavulariidce. 2. Stolonifera -5 l 2. Tubiporidce. .-Fam. 1. Alcyonidce. ... 2 ,, 2. Helioporidte. v etc. etc. C Section I. Scleraxonia. L ,, II. Holacconia. 5. Pennatulacea Fam. Pennatulidee. 3. Alcyonacea. 4. Gorgonacea The principal points by which this classification differs from those put forward in recent times by other authors are the separation of the Protoalcyonaria and Stolonifera from the rest of the Alcyonaria as separate suborders, and the grouping together into one suborder the Tubiporidse and the Clavulariidse. The value of a system of classification rests upon the correctness of the conception of the relative values of the characters presented by the animals that are being classified. A good classification is not necessarily the one in which the different groups contain an approximately equal number of families or genera. It is generally recog- nized now, for example, that it is not reasonable to include Ampliioxus in the Class Pisces, but that it is reasonable and far more correct to place this remarkable form in a group by itself, the Acrania, which is to be considered of equal value to the whole 1 To illustrate the importance of this point, I may be allowed to quote some remarks of the late Professor Moseley (io):—“The existence of transverse communicating canals in Clavularia, extending between the vertical tubes at successive heights above the stolon-tubes, as in Syringopora, is apparently a new fact, and one of great interest.”
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