ROOM II. LILY ENCRINITE. 87 



field quarry, on the heights that overlook the town, a bed of 

 limestone was exposed, the upper surface of which was in- 

 crusted with the stony peduncles or roots of Apiocrinites ; 

 upon this stratum was a layer of clay, in which were 

 innumerable remains of receptacles and ossicula of stems 

 and arms ; some of the stems were erect, others prostrate, 

 and throughout the clay were the dismembered remains. 

 This submarine forest of Crinoideans must therefore have 

 nourished in the clear sea-water, till invaded by a current 

 loaded with mud that overwhelmed the living zoophytes, and 

 entombed them in the argillaceous deposit in which their 

 fossil remains are embedded. 



LILY ENCRINITE. (Encrinus liliiformis.) Wall-case Gf. Left 

 upper Shelf. This exquisite species of Crinoidea is equally 

 interesting and attractive to the amateur collector and the 

 naturalist. Its remains do not occur in the British strata, 

 and are only known in the muschelkalk of Lower Saxony. 

 The specimens in this country are chiefly from Erkerode, in 

 Brunswick ; they are found in a layer about eighteen inches 

 thick, of a soft argillaceous cream-coloured limestone, which 

 is chiefly made up of trochites, (i.e. detached ossicula of the 

 stem), and a few fragile shells and corals. 



The receptacle of the Lily Encrinite is smooth, and in the 

 form of a depressed vase ; its base is composed of five plates, 

 upon which are placed three successive series of other plates, 

 with the uppermost of which the arms articulate. The stem 

 is formed of numerous perforated round ossicles, articulated to 

 each other by radiated grooved surfaces, and becoming some- 

 what pentangular, and alternately larger and smaller towards 

 the summit, to which the receptacle is fixed \ a construction 

 admitting of great freedom of motion. 



This Encrinite when lying in relief on the rock, with its 

 receptacle entirely or partially closed, so strikingly resembles 

 a bud or expanding flower of a lily or tulip, as to justify the 

 popular name of Stone Lily. An exquisite specimen is 

 figured by Mr. Parkinson. 1 There are a few beautiful exam- 

 ples in the Case before us. 



PENTACRINITES. Wall-case G. In this group of Crinoideans 

 the ossicles of the columns are angular, generally pentagonal, 



1 See " Pictorial Atlas," PL XLVIII.; " Wonders of Geology," p. 651. 



