ROSY FEATHER-STAR. 13 



that paper he maintained the proposition that his Penta- 

 crinus Europ&us was only the young of Comatula ; that 

 the Feather-star comiflenced life as an Encrinite, and 

 thus, as it were, changed its nature from a pseudo-polype 

 to a Starfish. He there compares the youngest Comatula 

 he had met with, with the oldest Pentacrinus, and shows 

 the gradual progression of form during the developement of 

 the latter towards the adult state of the former, the de- 

 velopement of the arms, the gradual appearance of the 

 pinnae and the original absence of dorsal filaments, and the 

 increase in their number as the animals of each kind grow 

 older. He figures an advanced Pentacrinus just beginning 

 to form pinna?, and compares it with the figure of the 

 youngest Comatula he had ever obtained by dredging, and 

 remarks, " In the Pentacrinus it is to be observed that 

 the arms are just beginning to form pinnse towards their 

 extremities ; that they have the sulphur yellow colour 

 and dark marginal spotting observable in the other, which 

 shews in like manner that the upper pinnae are first 

 formed.' 1 Afterwards the dorsal cirrhi are increased from 

 five to nine. Comatula? " a little older are comparatively 

 common in which the pinna? are complete, and from this 

 period they appear to form regularly at the apex of the 

 arm as this goes on extending in length. These small 

 Comatula still retain the original sulphur yellow colour 

 towards the apices of the arras, the lower part and body 

 assuming the characteristic red of the adult Comatula. 

 From observations repeatedly made, 1 ' says Mr. J. V. 

 Thompson, " I think it most probable that the Comatula 

 attain their full growth in one year so as to be in a con- 

 dition to propagate their kind the summer following that 

 of their birth. 1- ' Further on he remarks : — " Another cir- 

 cumstance confirmatory of these being the young of Co- 



