114 Mr. F. A. Bather on the 



that also is so far from unusual that it has recently led an 

 American palaeontologist to make the remark (extraordinarily 

 exaggerated no doubt) that " the root of crinoids appears to 

 be the counterpart of the calyx in type of symmetry." 

 Should this interpretation commend itself to Dr. Jahn, he 

 will be able to discuss it in that future volume which is to 

 deal with Loboliths and other crinoid roots. 



An imperfect crown from the white limestone, f 2, near 

 Koneprus was labelled by Barrande " Lecanocrinus bohemi- 

 cms," but Messrs. Waagen and Jahn incline to place it in 

 Ichthyocrinus, to which it certainly presents a closer resem- 

 blance. 



To the long-known genus Scyphocrinus are devoted no less 

 than sixty-three pages and nearly twenty-two plates, not to 

 mention those on which are described and figured the nume- 

 rous fragments probably belonging to it. The more one 

 appreciates the thoroughness of this piece of work, the more 

 one regrets that its wonderful array of detail is unprovided 

 with a summary in the form of diagnoses of the genus and 

 its species. There is a key to the latter, but it has proved 

 incomplete and inapplicable in practice. For the generic 

 diagnosis the reader is referred to the description by Zenker 

 (1833), which, he is told, "forme une diagnose ge"ne*rique 

 fort exacte." Even had Zenker given a diagnosis, it would 

 have been framed in accord with the knowledge of his time, 

 and would have required revision after the discovery of 

 hundreds of genera unknown to him, some of them closely 

 allied to Scyphocrinus. Merely to learn that the present 

 authors refer Scyphocrinus to the Melocrinidse (which they 

 nowhere define) one has to hunt back from p. 73 to p. 11. 

 But such is the vast plan to which they will be faithful at all 

 costs ! 



The Melocrinidge belong to that division of Monocyclica 

 Caraerata which has the radials in contact all round. They 

 are distinguished by having 4 basals ; in each half-ray 2-5, 

 occasionally more, fixed secundibrachs, which support 2 or 4 

 main rami, giving off pinnules or pinnulate ramuli ; nume- 

 rous and usually definite interbrachials, intersecundibrachs, 

 and anals ; a tegmen of numerous, small, and irregular 

 plates ; a stem circular in section. The known genera are 

 Scyphocrinus, Mariacrinus, Melocrinus, and Ctenocrinus ; 

 and of these the oldest and, in some respects, least specialized 

 is Scyphocrinus. 



Scyphocrinus may be diagnosed as a Melocrinid vvitli a 

 large number of interbrachials, anals, and intersecundibrachs, 

 varying both in number and arrangement within a single 



