EEPORT ON THE CRINOIDEA. 191 



of the " Crinactinota," viz., the Cystids. On the other hand, according to the scheme 

 on p. 421, " Anthodiata" was the name proposed by Burmeister for the Blastoids, while 

 the term "Brachiata" was also his, and included the true Crinoids and the Cystids. On 

 pp. 3, 227, and 230, however, the term " Brachiata" is used by Bronn to denote the true 

 Crinoids only, and it is attributed to Miiller. Zittel has followed Bronn in this respect, 

 and, as I believe, erroneously. For I have searched Mliller's writings on Crinoids 

 repeatedly without finding this expression, though frequent reference is made to the 

 " Crinoidea Tessellata mit Arm en." 



After various unsuccessful attempts to discover where Burmeister's nomenclature was 

 published, I applied to Prof. F. J. Bell, who was kind enough to make a search in the 

 library of the Zoological Department at the Museum of Natural History, with the 

 following result. In his Zoonomische Briefe, published at Leipzig in 1856 (vol. i. 

 p. 243), Burmeister gives the following " Systematische Uebersicht der Crinoideen." 



I. Crinoidea anthodiata. 



1. Cystideen. 2. Blastoideen. 



IT. Crinoidea hruchiata. 



3. Tessellaten. 4. Articulaten. 5. Gesippten {Crinoidea costata). 6. 

 Holopus. 



This classification of Burmeister's deserved more attention than it has hitherto 

 received ; for it was the first which clearly brought out the difference between the true 

 Crinoids with segmented arms attached to the radials and the " Anthodiata " or Blastoids 

 and Cystids, in which there are either no arms at all or structures of an entirely 

 different nature from those of the true Crinoids. In this, as in other respects, the 

 Blastoids and Cystids at once difi"er from the Crinoids and resemble each other. In fact 

 they are so closely linked together that it is extremely difficult to refer forms like 

 Hybocystites and Cystohlastus to one group rather than to the other.^ 



The term Crinoidea should, I think, be limited to the strictly brachiate forms for 

 which it was proposed by Miller ; and it is much less applicable to the stalked Echino- 

 derms generally than Leuckart's name " Pelmatozoa." But except as regards this 

 question of nomenclature Burmeister's classification agrees far better with our present 

 knowledge than many of those published before or since his time, e.g., that of d'Orbigny, 

 Pictet, or of Dujardin and Hupe. 



Low as the Cystids had fallen in Broun's classification from the ordinal position to 



1 Quenstedt has solved the difficulty respecting the systematic position of Cystohlastus by describing it twice over. 

 On p. 684 of his " Encriniden " it appears among the Cystids, and is figured on Tab. 113, fig. 89 ; but on p. 724 it is 

 described as a Blastoid, and it is figured on Tab. 114, fig. 98, under the name of Cijclohlasttis. 



