PKOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 253 



belonging to the Cyathocrinidce, Although all, or nearly all, the cri- 

 noids hitherto published from the Upper Coal Measures of the United 

 States, belong to the CyatJiocrinido}, the species No. 21 of the foregoing 

 list is the first one known from that formation which presents exactly 

 the calycular formula of true CyatJioerinus. Besides this two of the 

 other new species of crinoids belong to genera that have hitherto been 

 unknown in x^orth American strata above the Subcarboniferous, one of 

 them, indeed, being never before known to exist. Such facts demanded 

 rigid inquiry as to whether these strange forms might not have been 

 derived from some older formation, and become accidentally mixed with 

 those from the Upper Coal Measures, especially as the ijackage was not, 

 ■when first examined by me, securely closed, and the record was defective 

 as before indicated. All the specimens were therefore subjected to care 

 ful examination under the lens, which disclosed the fact that some one or 

 more of these new forms had adhering to its surface a greater or less num- 

 ber of minute fragments of Polyzoans, which were not only recognized as 

 Upper Coal Measure species, but fragments of the same were found adher- 

 ing to many of the well-known Upper Coal Measure brachiopods asso- 

 ciated with them in the collection. In addition to this, the character and 

 aspect of the imbedding matrix, so far as it remained with the fossils, 

 were found to be essentiallj^ the same u^jon both the new and well-known 

 forms. There appears, therefore, to be no room for reasonable doubt that 

 these new forms, as well as the others which are associated with them in 

 the collection, came from Upper Coal Measure strata at the locality indi- 

 cated by the label as before mentioned ; and that they are all from sub- 

 stantially the same local horizon. The loss of the record of the donor's 

 name is to be regretted, but it was no doubt occasioned by the confusion 

 into which a part of the collections of the Museum fell at the time of 

 the fire which a few years ago damaged the building of the Smith- 

 Bonian Institution. 



The discovery of these new crinoidal forms is not only interesting in 

 itself, but it is important as showing a persistence of certain paleozoic 

 crinoidal types up to almost the closing epoch of Paleozoic time as it is 

 represented by North American strata. The intimate relationship of 

 at least the brachiopodal fauna of the Subcarboniferous series of the 

 Mississippi Valley (especially that of the Chester limestone member of 

 that series) with that of the Upper Coal Measure limestone and shales 

 is well known. Indeed, quite a number of the brachiopods of these 

 two formations we must consider as specifically identical. The case is 

 different, however, with the crinoidal faunae of the two formations as re- 

 gards specific identity, for they afibrd no exception to the rule that fos- 

 sU crinoids have a narrowly limited vertical range. But in the case of 

 these fossils there is shown by this collection to be a recurrence of 

 formerly existing types, or, more properly speaking, these newly dis- 

 covered types indicate the continuation through preceding epochs of 



