219 



CHAP. XIV. 



RAYED ANIMALS STAR-FISHES. 



Crinoidese of Primaeval Seas. Different Families of the Star- 

 fishes Their Structure, &c. Ophiuridse. Feather-star. 

 Sun-star. Brittle-star, &c. 



ALL the animated beings we suppose that our 

 readers have hitherto examined belong, let us 

 remind them, to the great sub -kingdom of radiated 

 animals. There is, however, another order of 

 creatures belonging to the same group examples 

 of which may be discovered on every shore. These 

 are the star-fishes, known to naturalists as the 

 Echinodermata, a division comprehending all 

 those rayed animals which are enveloped in a 

 covering either hard or rough or beset with 

 prickles, like the hedgehog, a peculiarity from 

 which the general title of the order is derived, 

 echinus being the Greek word for hedgehog, 

 and derma meaning in the same language a 

 covering. 



The star-fish differs in a striking manner from 

 those gelatinous radiaries already noticed, not 

 only in the hardness of the integument with 

 which it is invested, but in the extreme com- 



