ROSY FEATIIER-STAR. 



11 



serve as food for the animal. This observation T cannot 

 confirm, not having- ever found, any vibratile cilia on this 

 animal, saving on the walls of its stomach. Several authors 

 state that besides the stomach and intestine, the body is 

 provided with a liver. 



" In the months of May and June, 11 says Mr. J. V. 

 Thompson, " the full-grown Comatidce. have the mem- 

 branous expansion inside each of the pinnae considerably 

 extended, at least as far as the fifteenth or twentieth pair ; 

 these, which are the matrices or conceptacula, at length 

 show themselves distended with ova, which in July, or 

 even earlier, make their exit through a round aperture on 

 the facial side of the conceptaculum, still, however, ad- 

 hering together in a roundish cluster of about a hundred 

 each by means of the extension and connection of their 

 umbilical cords. 11 



And now commences the 

 strange chapter in the history 



of the Feather-star ; a history 



which has excited much dis- 

 cussion in the world of science. 



In the year 1823, Mr. J. V. 



Thompson discovered in the 



Cove of Cork, a singular little 



pedunculated crinoid animal, 



which he named Pentacrinus 



Europaus. This creature was 



taken attached to the stems of 



Zoophytes of different orders. 



It measured about three-fourths 



of an inch in height, and 



resembled a minute Comatula 



mounted on the stalk of a 



■ . 



