1898] PENTAGRINUS : A NAME AND ITS HISTORY 249 



around the legs of fowls, as is seen in the figure, where are two 

 series of separate ash-coloured stones, and others whitish, elegantly 

 joined into one mass ; the substance is that of the Jew-stone." The 

 figure represents five biserial arms of a crinoid, broken away at one 

 end, so as to expose the pinnules. There has never been any doubt 

 as to Lachmund's meaning ; the genus to which he referred was 

 soon figured by others from more complete specimens, and was dis- 

 tinguished as Encrinus or Encrinos Lachmundi. Under that name 

 it was referred to by the illustrious Luidius or Lhuyd (1699). But 

 it was soon discovered that the arms of Encrinus Lachmtc7idi were 

 attached to an Entrochus, or stem of round coluumals with radiating 

 striae, and not to an Encrinus, or stem composed of Pentacrini. 

 Then there arose a false etymology, and many who did not know 

 their literature supposed that Encrinus meant a fossil like a lily 

 with its flower closed : " Kpmv heisst eine Lilie, "'EyA.pivog soil daher 

 eine geschlossene Lilie bedeuten," wrote J. S. Schroeter (1778), and 

 laughed at those who, as Bertrand (1763) and Guettard (1761), 

 were conservative enough to use Encrinus in what, as he seems to have 

 forgotten, was its original sense. The idea seems to have arisen 

 with Harenberg (1729) who supposed that Encrinus Lachmundi 

 actually was a petrified lily ; hence the term " stone-lilies " even 

 now applied to the Crinoidea. There were not wanting writers 

 to protest with a mild solemnity that this fossil was really much 

 more like a cob of maize than any lily whether open or closed. 



About the time of Linnaeus then there were two views or 

 practices. The one applied Encrinus or Encrinitcs (the terms were 

 used indifferently) to stems composed of Pentacrini, i.e. star-marked 

 columnals, also known as Asteriae. The other, and the more 

 favoured, distinguished Encrinus from Penfacrinus thus : — The 

 Encrinite has a round stem or Entrochus, composed of troehitae, 

 above this is the " Gelenkstein," called Pentagonum by Eosinus 

 (1719), Lachmund (1669), and others, [ = Cup], and this supports a 

 crown which consists of rays. The Pentacrinite has a stem, usually 

 pentagonal, the separate columnals of which are the so-called 

 Asteriae, which form the Astcriax coluninares ; it has no " Gel- 

 enkstein," and its crown is fasciculate. 



Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his " Systema " mentioned no 

 recent stalked crinoid ; while both here and in the later editions, 

 fossil crinoids were placed in the mineral kingdom under the 

 comprehensive and inappropriate heading Hchniritholithus, with 

 hardly an attempt to arrange them under the binominal system. 



The earliest writer after 1758 to help us in this matter is C. F. 

 Schulze (1760), whose work appears to Mr C. D. Sherborn and 

 myself to contain Latin names used in the Linnaean manner, such 

 as Astropecten regularis, Palmipes coriacca, and Astrophyton arach- 



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