2 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 74 



been the one accepted by subsequent authors. In no case has Lyon's 

 original material been studied except by Wachsmuth and Springer. 

 The genus then as defined and discussed by various authors has been 

 the V asocHnus of Wachsmuth and Springer and not the Vasocrinus 

 of Lyon, Cyathocrmus hexadactylus Lyon and Casseclay {Cyatho- 

 crintos lyoni Hall), which was chosen by Wachsmuth and Springer 

 as genotype of Vasoerinus, can not be retained. Such a procedure 

 exceeds the somewhat elastic bounds permitted subsequent authors in 

 designating a genolectotype. Vasocrinus was founded by Lyon to 

 take care of the two Devonian species valens and sculptus and the 

 transfer of the genus to a Carboniferous species which by no chance 

 is congeneric with either of the original species is scarcely admissible. 

 In rejecting Vasocrinus as represented by the structures found in 

 Cyathocrimts hexadactylus Lyon and Casseday I am forced back to 

 a consideration of Lyon's original species. For the reception of 

 Cyathocrinus hexadactylus Lyon an-d Casseday (Cyathocrinus lyoni 

 Hall) it is necessary to create a new genus, for which the name 

 Pellec^inus is here proposed. 



In 1857 Sidney S. Lyon - described and figured the new genus 

 Vccsocrinms^ referring to it two new species, V. valens and V. sculptus. 

 This report is. now somewhat difficult to obtain. The plates illus- 

 trating the paleontologic part of the report were distributed in a 

 separate atlas with cardboard covers. This atlas is even rarer than 

 the report. As the plates of the atlas are not bound in, sets are 

 seldom complete. For these reasons it has seemed best to republish 

 Lyon's original descriptions in full and to reproduce the original 

 figures as well. As Lyon's figures will frequently be referred to and 

 the individual specimens designated by the numbers appearing on 

 Lyon's plate the figures as here shown on Plate 1, Figure 10, are given 

 the same numbers and letters used by Lyon. In his descriptions Lyon 

 used three specimens. It is essential that the identity of each of these 

 be kept in mind, for as will be shown one of these specimens (3&) 

 seems to have been referred originally to V. valens by Lyon and used 

 in the description of that species by him, although subsequently 

 identified as V. sculptus. A transcription of Lyon's text and his ex- 

 planations of the Vasocnnus figures on the plate are here given. 



[TEXT, PAGES 485-487] 



Genus VASOCRINUS Lyon 



Gen. char. — Body vase shaped ; twice as wide as high ; basal pieces five ; 

 pentagonal ; pointed at their superior margin ; primary radials five ; rising 

 between the points of the basal pieces ; secondtu'y radials five ; broad ; irregu- 



^ Lyon, S. S., in Owen, D. D., Third Report of the Geological Survey in Kentucky, pp. 

 485-487, pi. 4, figs. 3, 3a-d, 1857. 



