BRITISH ECHINODERMATA. 



CRINOIDE^:, 



OR P1NNIGRADE ECHINODERMATA. 



One of the most remarkable phenomena displayed to us 

 by the researches of the geologist, is the evidence of the 

 existence, in primaeval times, of animals and plants, the 

 analogies of which are now rare or wanting on our lands 

 and in our seas. Among those tribes which have become all 

 but extinct, but which once presented numerous generic mo- 

 difications of form and structure, the order of Crinoid Star- 

 fishes is most prominent. Now scarcely a dozen kinds of 

 these beautiful animals live in the seas of our globe, and 



