YOUNG OF THE FEATHER STAR 



star, and all of them were seen to proceed after 

 a certain time to produce freely-swimming little 

 star-fish. Thus it w^as proved, what indeed is 

 clear enough from the structure of its feathered 

 arms and other parts, that the feather-star or 

 comatula is unlike other star-fishes and is a 

 Pentacrinus (or stone-lily or Encrinite or Crinoid) 

 which has lost its stalk. And all the time that 

 the naturalists of 250 years ago were disputing as 

 to the real nature of the stone-lilies found in 

 the rocks, little stone -lilies a quarter of an inch 

 long were being abundantly produced every year 

 close to hand in the sea on the rocky shores of 

 England and France and in the Mediterranean. 

 Whilst the first recent unfossilized Pentacrinus 

 seen by naturalists was brought all the way 

 from Martinique, any number of a minute size 

 were to be found living on our own shores. But 

 these European Pentacrini escaped observation 

 on account of their minute size and the sudden 

 dwindling and loss of the stalk. Only in its 

 very young stage does the common feather-star 

 of to-day retain the most remarkable character- 

 istic of its remote Cambrian ancestors, the stalk. 

 But it does for a brief week or so, whilst almost 

 invisible to the unaided eye, possess a well- 



293 



