Ill 



mata radiata. Agreeable to this opinion they were placed, 

 in the present work, next to, but preceding this order of 

 animals. Their most proper station in the scale of nature 

 could not be so perfectly ascertained, until further know- 

 ledge respecting their internal organization had been ob- 

 tained. The examination made by Mr. Miller has furnished 

 us with that information ; he has shown that they well 

 deserved to be considered as forming a distinct family ; and 

 his observations have also manifested that, both in their 

 structure and habits, they agree with the stelleridce. Thus 

 far the anatomical observations of Mr. Miller have been in 

 accordance with the opinions entertained by the present 

 writer, who, however, would, had he been so happy as to have 

 obtained an earlier view of Mr. Miller's labours, have been 

 disposed to place the crinoidea, from their greater complexity 

 of structure, at the end of, rather than before, the stelleridce. 



After having examined the distinctive characters of 

 ophiura, eitryale, and asteria, and ascertained that neither 

 of them approximated particularly to the crinoidea^ Mr. 

 Miller proceeded to the examination of the comatidcB, by 

 which he discovered such a conformity of structure, and so 

 many points of accordance, as to allow him to say that coma- 

 tida might be defined, v/ith sufficient precision, as a penta- 

 crinus destitute of its column. But, as the characters 

 hitherto given of comatula do not allude to those parts 

 of its organization which mark the link between it and the 

 crinoidea, Mr. Miller thought it necessary to propose the 

 following new generic character : — > 



" Genus. Comatula. — An unattached animal, having 

 a depressed orbicular body, formed of calcareous plates con- 

 taining the viscera. The mouth in the centre (capable of 

 being elongated into a proboscis), surrounded by tentacu- 

 lated arms, or fingers, composed of numerous joints : near 

 the base of the body, below the fingers or arms, many jointed 

 auxiliary side-arms terminating in a hooked point." 



