POTERIOCRINTD.E PENTACRINUS. HI 



1. Species. Pentacrinus Caput Medusa. (Miller.) 

 PI. 14, Fi(j. 1 a, to f. 



Definition. — Dorso-central plate resembling an enlarged and thickened supra-columnar 

 joint? on the prominent angles of which, the retiring angles formed by the junction of 

 the five lateral perisomie pieces rest; mouth centrical and slightly protrusive, but 

 incapable of being elongated into a proboscidiform tube; basal rays five, which at the 

 second joint bifurcate, these again subdivide, until the final subdivisions amount to 

 one hundred and twenty; column formed of alternate thick and thin pentangular joints? 

 from which radiate at intervals five auxiliary side arms. 



Synonymes and References. 



Encrinus Caput Medusa.— Lamarck. 



Isis Asteria. — Linneus. Whitehurst. — Inquiry into the original State and Formation 

 of the Earth, PI. vii./V/. 2. 



• — Parkinson's Organic Remains, Vol. 2. PL xix.fig. 1. 



— Memoires de T Academie de Sciences de V An. 1755. 

 Pentacrinus Caput Medusae.— Miller, Nat. Hist. Crin. PI. fig. p. 48. 



.— Buckl. B. Treat. Vol. 2, PI. 52,/. I, p. 432. 



Parra.Hist. Nat. Havanncc, page 191, t. 70. 

 Ocken's Zoolog — &c. &c. 



Localities. 



The sea bottom ofT the islands of Barbadoes, Martinique, and Nevis ; and probably 

 at certain depths tiiroughout the Caribbean sea. 



The two specimens of this crinoid now in the Bristol Institution, were taken in tlie 

 Caribbean sea, ofl' Barbadoes ; and Mr. Stutchbury informs us that he has reason to 

 believe they were taken by the fishermen at a depth of from fifty to eighty fathoms, in 

 clear water with a rocky bottom. The side arms, and probably the rays, encircled the 

 fishing lines and clung with such tenacity that on the fishermen drawing up their lincg 

 the columns became fractured, so that the upper portions of the animals were taken into 



