﻿2 20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 47 



The following is Troost's original description : 



"Echino-encrinites fenestrates } Mihi. 



" This crinoid, the summit of which is closed, and which does not 

 possess arms, approached to the genus Echino-encrinites of Herman 

 von Meyer — Cystides of von Buch, but it differs nevertheless in very 

 important particulars from Echino-encrinites. The arrangement and 

 number of plates of which it is composed are perhaps identical with 

 those of Echino-encrinites. I say perhaps, because the five plates 

 which form the summit, as will be seen, can not be distinguished in 

 our fossil. The other characters by which it differs from the Echino- 

 encrinites may entitle it to form a new genus. 



"It has the form of a small acorn; four furrows [ambulacra] 

 running longitudinally from the summit to the base, divide the sur- 

 face into four equal parts ; on three of them are poriferous rhombs 

 and on one is an oval aperture [anus] . The poriferous rhombs are 

 barred (these bars are not equal in number in these rhombs; some 

 have 16, and 14 at the top, and 12 below) in the direction of the 



In the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1853, p. 213, is the following: 



" A paper has also been presented for publication by the executors of the 

 late Dr. Troost, of Nashville. It consists of descriptions and drawings of a 

 very numerous family of extinct zoophytes, to which the organic remains 

 called the stone lily belong . . . and the paper of Professor Troost describes 

 several hundred [only 107] species, of which two only have living represen- 

 tatives. 



" The memoir, however, is not in a condition to be published without re- 

 vision, and additions to bring it up to the state of knowledge at the present 

 time. This labor has been gratuitously undertaken by Professor Agassiz, of 

 Cambridge, and Professor James Hall, of Albany. The collection of speci- 

 mens from which the drawings were made is now in the possession of these 

 gentlemen, and the memoir will be published as soon as the corrections and 

 additions are made." 



After the paper had remained unrevised by Agassiz for five years, the 

 manuscript was turned over to Hall, and on the cover the latter wrote " re- 

 ceived from Professor Agassiz in Cambridge, August 23d, 1855, James Hall." 

 .Many years later Meek made inquiries at the Smithsonian Institution regard- 

 ing this work, and received the following reply : 



" Washington, D. C, July 21, 1868. 

 " My Dear Mr. Meek, 



1 can tell you nothing about present condition of Troost's paper or what 

 Professor Hall has done or will do with it. Nor does Professor Henry re- 

 member anything of any plan or arrangement. We have published nothing 

 and know of no publication. Sincerely yours, 



" S. F. Baird. 

 - F. B. Meek, 

 " Springfield, 111." 



Troop's manuscript and fossils remained in Professor Hall's possession for 

 more thail forty years, and the matter was lost sight of by the Smithsonian 

 authorities. After Professor Hall's death, the writer called the attention of 



