60 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
certainly the most plausible, but we are not likely ever to know 
whether they were fixed to the sea bottom, or on substances lying 
on it, in some way, or were free-swimmers: if the last, then they 
must have been furnished with some kind of special float. 
All the recent Crinoidea, or their close allies, are—so far as I 
know—fixed by a calcareous cement. 
The Bradford Pear Crinoid, Apiocrinus Parkinsoni, Schloth, 
has strong calcareous “roots,” and I have collected specimens .of 
moderate size from the Wenlock formation showing the bases of 
the stems attached to Corals. (See figure c.) 
The specimens I have found at Auchenskeith and Westerhouse 
show the fingers or branches twisted once, twice, and three times 
round the stems of other Crinoids—all the examples being very 
small. One of them shows that the stem of attachment had con- 
tinued to grow, and the finger or branch to grasp it, till the stem 
died ; for it had swollen round the sides of the finger asa growing 
tree does with fencing wire fixed round it. 
The species to which the grasping arms or fingers belonged 
appears to be a very small smooth variety, the “cups” of which 
are got in the shale along with them. 
Mr. Bennie was also good enough to look up for me the 
“ Challenger” monograph on the Crinoids, but could find no re- 
ference to a grasping power in any of those dredged by that 
expedition, and figured and described in the monograph. 
I asked Mr. Thomas Scott, F.L.8., of the Marine Station, 
Granton, if he could tell me if any of the recent Crinoidea have 
the power of catching hold with their “ fingers,” and he replied 
that—“ The habits of Antedons (Echinoderms) lead me to believe 
that they can grasp suitable objects with their flexible arms; as a 
matter of fact, it is often difficult to disengage them from amongst 
zoophites, owing to this very habit.” 
Since Mr. Scott’s attention has been drawn to this matter, we 
will be sure to have more definite information regarding it by- 
and-bye. What we want to know is whether any recent Crinoidea 
can twist their arms ¢ightly round a hard object, like a bit of 
brass wire twisted round a pen stick, the tendrils of some plants, 
or the prehensile tails of certain animals. 
Some of the Carboniferous Crinoid bases or “ rooting” processes 
are twisted round stems of Crinoids (figure B), but they are gener- 

