866 ECHINODERMATA— SEA STAR. 



culated feet ; their nervous system is indistinctly traced ; and their organs of 

 motion are extremely imperfect. The Echinodermata are all marine ani 

 mals, and have the faculty, like many other of the more imperfect animals, 

 of speedily regenerating parts of their bodies which have been broken or 

 separated. Lamarck divides the class into three sections, viz. Fistulides, 

 Echinides, and Stellerides, while Cuvier arranges it into two orders, the first 

 including those which possess numerous membranous tentacula, serving as 

 organs of motion, and the second those which are destitute of these organs. 

 Latreille makes two classes of the same animals, under the names of Holo- 

 thurida and Echinoderma. The arrangement of Lamarck is chiefly followed ; 

 but we have added a fourth section, comprising, under the title of Crinoidae, 

 given to them by Mr. Miller, the animal remains known by the name of 

 Encrinites. 



THE SEA STAE, 



Called also the star-fish ; these curious animals inhabit the sea, and are 

 generally found on the sand, or among rocks, considerably below low water 

 mark. They are covered with a coriaceous crust, and have five or more 

 rays proceeding from a centre, in which is situated the mouth. A prodigious 

 number of tentacula, or short fleshy tubes, which seem at once calculated 

 to catch prey, and to anchor the animal to the rocks, proceed from each ray. 

 The mouth is armed with long teeth, for the purpose of breaking the shells 

 on which the animals feed. The animal breathes by means of gills. The 

 common, or five-rayed star-fish, 1 which is the species here represented, has 

 five angular rays, with prickly protuberances at the angles. When alive, it 

 is usually of a brownish white color. In one of these, which he kept for 

 some time alive, Mr. Bingley observed more than four thousand tentacula, 

 on the under sides of the rays. 



' Asterias rubens, Lin. 



