﻿SCHUCHERT] S1LURIC AND DEVONIC CYSTIDEA 269 



in L. tuberculatus? However, this form when compared with 

 Camarocrinus is wholly different, as the base of Lichenocrinus is 

 attached to foreign bodies, while to the upper side is attached a long, 

 slender, and complicated stem, 3 to 4 inches in length. Many ex- 

 cellent specimens are known with the stalk attacked, but none has a 

 crown. 



Even though no other example of root modification similar to 

 Camarocrinus is known, this fact alone can not be taken as disproving 

 Bather's statement 2 in regard to these bulbs that "another curious 

 modification, perhaps connected with a free-floating existence, was 

 presented by the root of Scyphocriuus [= Lobolithus = Camarocri- 

 nus] ." 



The suggestion of two writers that these bulbs may have func- 

 tioned as receptacles in which the young were developed finds no 

 support in other crinoid structures. The fertilized eggs of crinoids 

 pass from the pinnules into the water singly or in bunches, but are 

 not known to enter a special receptacle for further development 

 (See Springer, ante, page 259). 



Summary. — Camarocrinus thus appears to be the float of an un- 

 known crinoid that was held together after the death of the individual 

 by the firmly interlocked double walls of the exterior and interior, 

 while the crown and stalk dropped away. Under this hypothesis, the 

 float drifted with the sea currents, was finally filled with water, and 

 the attenuated end being heavier, sank in that position to the sea 

 bottom. The occurrence of these bulbs thus in the strata now gives 

 one the impression that they represent the entire animal and are pre- 

 served in the original position of growth. 



The writer realizes that the last word has not been said in regard 

 to Camarocrinus, and the present work is offered with the hope that 

 some paleontologist will attack the problem from another point of 

 view. The supposition that Camarocrinus is a degenerate crinoid in 

 which the roots represent cirri, the medio-basal chamber the calyx, 

 and the double walls of the camarse the equivalent of the arms, seems 

 to find no support in the detailed structure of these bulbs. 



CAMAROCRINUS STELLATUS Hall 

 (Plate XLIV. figures 1-5) 



Camarocrinus stellatus Hall, Twenty-eighth Rep. N. Y. State Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., Mus. ed., 1879, p. 207, pi. 35, figs. 1-8. Extract, 4°, 1880, p. 5, 

 pi. 35, figs. 1-8. 



l Op. cit., p. 135. 

 Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., v, 1882, p. 229, pi. 9, figs. 6, 6a. 



