292 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. Cuap. VIII. — 
and in the receptacle, which is small and pyriform, not 
having a distinct cavity; there is only a median canal, which 
is seen in a vertical section: but the entire structure of the 
summit does not appear to be shown in any specimens 
hitherto observed. 
ENCRINUS LILIFoRMIS (Lily Encrinite), Lign. 91, fig. 6. 
—This exquisite Crinoid is equally interesting and attractive 
to the amateur collector and the naturalist. Its remains do 
not occur in the British strata, and are only known in the 
muschelkalk of Lower Saxony. The specimens in this coun- 
try are chiefly from Erkerode, in Brunswick ; they are found 
in a layer, about eighteen inches thick, of a soft argillaceous 
cream-coloured limestone, chiefly made up of trochites, de- 
tached ossicula, and a few fragile shells and corals. 
{ 
1 
The receptacle of the Lily Encrinite is smooth, and in the — 
form of a depressed vase ; its base is composed of five plates, — 
upon which are placed three successive series of other plates, 
with the uppermost of which the arms articulate. The stem 
is formed of numerous perforated round ossicles, articulated 
to each other by radiated grooved surfaces, and becoming 
somewhat pentangular, and alternately larger and smaller, 
towards the summit, to which the receptacle is fixed ; a con- 
struction admitting great freedom of motion.* 
This Encrinite when lying in relief on the rock, with its 
receptacle entirely or partially closed (see Wond. p. 548), so 
strikingly resembles the bud or expanding flower of a Lily 
or Tulip, as to justify the popular name of Stone-lily. An 
exquisite specimen is figured by Mr. Parkinson ;t the British 
Museum possesses some fine examples. { 
Mr. Parkinson detected the animal membrane in ossicles — 
of this crinoid, by immersing them in dilute hydrochlori¢ 
acid.§ My friend Mr. Frederick Harford has repeated the 
experiment with success. 
* Mr. Miller’s work should be consulted for details of structure, 
+ Pict. Atlas, pl. xlviii. + Petrifactions, p. 77. 
§ See Pict. Atlas, pl. xlvii. fig. 47. 
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