ENCRINITES. 



ENCRINITKS. 



HI 



ray*. Finally, the 'pinnule* ' are the lateral divisions of the digit*. 

 tioni ; and De Blainville, like Miller, divides the rya into principal 

 rays and accessory or auxiliary rays.* 



') >r. Hucklantl ('Bridgewater Treatise '), who uses the phraseology of 

 Miller, apeak* of UieM animals as destined to find their nourishment 

 by spreading their nets and moving their bodies through a limited 

 space, from a fixed poaition at the bottom of the Ma ; or by employing 

 the aame instrument*, either when floating singly through the water, 

 or attached, like Pcnltlcumu [CIRRIPEDIA], to floating pieces of wood. 

 He refer* to Miller for several instances of their power of repairing 

 casual injuries, and figures a recent fentafrintu, one of whose arms is 

 under the process of being reproduced, as crabs and lobsters reproduce 

 their lost claws and legs, and many lizards their tails and feet, observ- 

 ing that the arms of star-fishes also, when broken off, are in the same 

 manner reproduced. [ECBIXODERMATA.] The aame author remarks, 

 that although the representatives of the Crinoideans in our modern 

 seas are of rare occurrence, this family was of vast numerical import- 

 ance among the earliest inhabitants of the ancient deep. " We may 

 judge," says Dr. Buckland, " of the degree to which the individuals of 

 these species multiplied among the first inhabitants of the sea, from 

 the countless myriad* of their petrified remains which fill so many 

 limestone beds of the transition formations, and compose vast strata 

 of entrochal marble, extending over large tracts of country in Northern 

 Europe and North America. The substance of this marble is often 

 almost as entirely made up of the petrified boiies of Kncriuitea as a 

 corn-rick is composed of straws. Man applies it to construct his 

 palace and adorn his sepulchre ; but there are few who know, and 

 fewer still who duly appreciate, the surprising fact, that much of this 

 marble is composed of the skeletons of millions of organised beings, 

 once endowed with life, and susceptible of enjoyment, which, after 

 performing the part that was for a while assigned to them in living 

 nature, have contributed their remains towards the composition of 

 the mountain masses of the earth. Of more than thirty species of 

 Crinoideans that prevailed to such enormous extent in the transition 

 period, nearly all became extinct before the deposition of the lias, and 

 only one presents the angular column of the Pentacrinite : with this 

 one exception, pentangular columns first began to abound among the 

 Crinoideans at the commencement of the lias, and have from thence 

 extended onwards into our present seas. Their several species and 

 even genera are also limited in their extent ; for example, the great Lily 

 Kncrinite (. moniliformu) is peculiar to the Muschel-Kalk, and the 

 Pear-Encrinite to the middle region of the Oolitic Formation." 



The same author, speaking of the joints which composed the stem, 

 says, " The name of Entrochi, or Wheelstones, has with much propriety 

 been applied to these insulated vertebra;. The perforations in the 

 centre of these joints affording a facility for stringing them as beads, 

 has caused them in ancient times to be used as rosaries. In the 

 northern parts of England they still retain the appellation of ' Saint 

 Cuthbert's beads.' 



On a rock by I.indisforn 



Saint Cuthbert it, and toils to frame 



The Ma-born beads that bear his name. 



" Each of these presents a similar series of articulations, varying 

 as we ascend upwards through the body of the animal, every joint 

 being exactly adjusted to give the requisite amount of flexibility and 

 strength. From one extremity of the vertebral column to the other, 

 and throughout the hands and fingers, the surface of each bone 

 articulates with that adjacent to it, with the most perfect regularity 

 and nicety of adjustment. So exact and methodical is this arrange- 

 ment, even to the extremity of its minutest tentocula, that it is just 

 a* improbable that the metals which compose the wheels of a 

 chronometer should fur themselves have calculated and arranged the 

 form and number of the teeth of each respective wheel, and that 

 Ihnir wheels should have placed themselves in the precise position 

 fitted to attain the end resulting from the combined action of them 

 all, u for the successive hundreds and thousands of little bones that 

 compose an Kncrinite to have arranged themselves in a position sub- 

 ordinate to the end produced by the combined effect of their united 

 mechanism, each acting iU peculiar part in harmonious subordination 

 to the rest; and all conjointly producing a result which no single 

 series of them acting separately could possibly have effected." 

 (< Bridgewater Treatise.') 



De Blainville characterises his Fixed Asterencrinjdeans (Astfron- 

 crinldes Fixes) as having a body more or less bursiform, supported 

 upon a long articulated stem, and fixed by a radiciform part 



Oenus, ApiocriniU*. Miller, who established this genus, character- 

 lies it as an animal with a column gradually enlarging at the apex, 

 composed of numerous joints, of which the superior is marked by 

 five diverging ridges, dividing the surface into as many equal portions, 

 sustaining the pelvis, formed of five sub-cuneiform joints, sup]><>rting 



It I* mcmsry to put the student on his gusrd against the confusion and 

 error manifest In this part of D BlatnvuW* useful work. This was not a 

 little pnullag when considered at coming from * pen of inch high reputation 

 as his ; till the arrtral of the ' Noutelles Additions ct Corrections ' brought the 

 lafarmalion that " par one transposition slngultrr* du manuscrlt, II y a en une 

 orW o> melange entre Irs paragraphes qul appartlrnnent sax scans Enmnui 

 et PtHtacrima." In short, among other mistake*, the titles fnrrinia and 

 Fniarrinta, together with whole paragraphs, ban been misplaced. 



others of a figure nearly similar, from which proceed the arms and 

 tentaculated fingers formed of simple joints having the figure of a 

 horse-shoe. 



De Blainville thus defines it : Body regular, circular, for the rest 

 unknown, contained in a sort of cupule or conical test (tot), com- 

 posed of three superposed rows, each consisting of five scaphoid 

 plates, united or jointed throughout, the upper one supporting on a 

 radiated surface the rays which are formed by a simple series of non- 

 pinnated (T) articulations. Stem round, at first as large as the body, 

 attenuating by degrees down to the root; articulations circular, 



Bradford Pcar-Kncrinite (Apiorrinila ntaniitu), restored and reduced. 

 1, expanded ; 2, closed ; a, the remedial effect of calcareous secretions in 

 repairing an Injury of the joint* of the stem : two young Individuals, and the 

 surfaces of two truncated stems appear at the base ; S, pear-shaped body of 

 Apiocrinita rotunivt, showing at it* upper extremity the Internal disposition 

 of the bones surrounding the cavity of the stomach ; 4, vertical section of the 

 body, showing the cavity of the stomach, and a aeries of lower cavities, or 

 hollow lenticular spaces, between the central portions of the enlarged joints of 

 the upper portion of the vertebral column. These spaces are considered by 

 Miller as enlargement* of the alimentary canal, which descends through the 

 axis of the entire column. The surfaces of the joints of the vertebral column 

 arc striated with rays on the adjacent plates, and allow of flexure without risk 

 of dislocation. (Bnckland.) 



