Mr. Say on Crinoidea. 315 



Synomymes. 



Kentucky Asterial Fossil ^ Park. Org, Rem, V. 2. pi. 13. 

 "EincrmiinsJloreaUs^ Schloth. petrif. (as quoted by Miller.) 



This is extremely abundant in many parts of Kentucky, and on 

 the margins of the Mississippi in a few places. Near Huntswille 

 they are very numerous ; and on the surface of a fragment of rock, 

 three inches long, by two and a quarter wide, sent to the Academy 

 by Mr. Hazard of that place, I have enumerated eighteen speci- 

 mens of this species more or less entire, and two specimens of 

 the preceeding species. On another still smaller piece of rock 

 are twenty-one specimens, all in alto i^elievo^ two of which are of 

 the preceding species. On a third fragment of rock, thirty may 

 be counted, and on a fourth upwards of fifty. 



That these animals were predunculated and fixed, there cannot 

 be any doubt. We see at the base of the pelvis a small rounded 

 surface, perforated in the centre for the passage of the alimentary 

 canal, and on the outer margin are very short, but distinct radii 

 of elevated lines, evidently intended for articulation with the 

 first joint of the column. The column itself is always found in 

 fragments accompanying the body of the animal, but never at- 

 tached to it. 



I think it highly probable that the branchial apparatus com- 

 municated with the surrounding fluid through the pores of the 

 ambulacrae, by means of filamentous processes ; these may also 

 have performed the office of tentacula in conveying the food to the 

 mouth, which was, perhaps, provided with an exsertile proboscis ; 

 or may we not rather suppose that the animal fed on the minute 

 beings that abounded in the sea water, and that it obtained them 

 in the manner of Ascidia, by taking them in with the water. 

 The residuum of digestion appears to have been rejected through 

 the mouth. 



