132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MU^FJUl\f. vol. xxxvi. 



Tiot found in situ, all the specimens being derived from small, loose 

 pieces in the debris. Most of the crinoids are therefore broken and 

 imperfect, and only a few preserving parts of the arms and column 

 were recovered. The most complete is the one given me by Professor 

 Knight (Plate 4, fig. 1). Unfortunately the structure was not 

 understood when found, and the stem of this specimen was almost 

 stripped of its cirri by too energetic cleaning in the field; most of 

 those on specimen No. 2 had been removed by weathering, but by 

 careful manipulation of the embedded proximal part of this stem 

 and of some other stem fragments I have developed the cirri so that 

 their length and proportions can be ascertained. 



The form under consideration is clearly distinct from species like 

 Pentacrimis fossilis and P. suhangulm'ls, in which the radials project 

 downward over the proximal columnals, and to which type only, as 

 clearly pointed out by Doctor Bather, in his paper on " Pentacrinus, 

 a Name and its History," " the name PentacrinuH properly belongs. 

 But it falls readily under the genus Isocrinus (Agassiz, 1836), 



A brief excursion among original sources enables me to add a little 

 to the very elaborate and instructive history of these names given by 

 Bather in the work cited. Isocrini/s, although described by von 

 Meyer in 1837, as stated, was actually published as a generic name by 

 Agassiz in 1836.^ Speaking of this form. Bather says on page 250 

 that " no figure of a fossil crinoid of our type (Isocrinus) is known 

 to me before 1800." In an extensive work by Daniel Briickner, en- 

 titled " Versuch einer Beschreibung historischor und natiirlicher 

 Merkwiirdigkeiten der Landschaft Basel," published in 23 parts, or 

 "Stuecke," from 1749 to 1763, there is on pages 2425-2431 of 

 the twentieth Stueck a good figure — No. 37 — of a well-preserved 

 specimen of this type, from the Swiss Jura, showing arms, stem, 

 and cirri, accompanied by a long description and a name. The 

 original specimens have been refigured by de Loriol in his " Crinoides 

 de la Suisse," Plate 14, figs. 31-38, under the name C ainocrinus 

 andrecB Desor, a genus since considered by him to be identical with 

 Isocrinus. The twentieth Stueck of Briickner's work was published 

 in 1761, and to the crinoid figured and described as above stated he gave 

 the name Entrochites ramosus, vel Encriiius, Lilium marinum. So 

 not only was the type figured and described before 1800; but a name 

 was given to it in binomial form, thus raising the question whether 

 the real name of our genus is not the venerable and classic term 

 Entrochites, thus for the first time brought into the domain of valid 

 nomenclature. 



"Natural Science, April, 1908, p. 252. 



* The Nomenclature of the Recent ('rinoids. Austin II. (-larli, Proc. I^. S. 

 Nat. Mus., XXXIV, 1908, i>. 526. 



