THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 88. APRIL 1885. 



XXIV. — Further It etna i ks-itpUflThe Morphology of the Blas- 

 toidea. By P. Herbert Carpenter, D.Sc., Assistant 

 Master at Eton College. 



In a short paper * that appeared in the ' Annals ' rather more 

 than three years ago, I discussed some of the theories respecting 

 Blastoid morphology which had been recently enunciated by 

 certain American palaeontologists, and more especially by 

 Mr. G. Hambach, of St. Louis f. I was led to speak a little 

 strongly upon the subject, because it appeared to me that 

 some of the theories in question could not have been put 

 forward by any one who had even an elementary knowledge 

 of the morphology of recent Echinoderms, and that they were 

 of a kind which would hinder rather than advance the pro- 

 gress of scientific knowledge. In the following pages I shall 

 attempt to show that this opinion was justified, 



I have the strongest conviction that the would-be inter- 

 preter of extinct fossil forms starts at a very serious disad- 

 vantage if he does not commence by obtaining the best 

 possible information about the morphology of their nearest 

 living representatives. In order to understand, even with an 

 approximate degree of correctness, extinct groups, such as the 

 Blastoids, Merostomata, Dinosauria, and others, a far more 



* " On certain Points in the Morphology of the Blastoidea," Ann. & 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. viii. 1881, pp. 418-421. 



t " Contribution to the Anatomy of the Genus Pentremit.es, with 

 Descriptions of new Species," Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci. vol. iv. no. 1, 

 1881, pp. 145-100, pis. A and B. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5, Vol. xv. 20 



