Studies of Crinoids 181 



small specimen of the crinoid obtained at 300 fathoms 

 near the Lofoten Islands (see Oct. 25th, 1866). He also 

 recounted the results of studies by Professor Wyville 

 Thomson and himself of a perfect specimen of the West 

 Indian Pentacrinus. These were (i) the precise conformity 

 of its general plan of structure to that of the pentacrinous 

 larva of comatula, before separation from its stem ; (2) the 

 close conformity of the visceral apparatus in the two, which, 

 with the contents of the stomach, indicates their food and 

 the manner of obtaining it to be the same, the whole 

 apparatus of arms and pinnules being' a trap for minute 

 organisms, which are conveyed to the mouth by ciliary 

 action along the floor of the furrow on the upper surface of 

 every pinnule; (3) the diagnosis of calcareous plates, 

 forming the essential or radial skeleton and those which 

 are accidental, according as they are imperforate or per- 

 forated for extensions of the axial cord, has been found to 

 hold good in such a variety of cases that it may be regarded 

 as fundamental in determining the homologies of the skeleton 

 in the whole group of Crinoidea. The specimen exhibited 

 showed how readily, if these clues were followed, very 

 aberrant forms might be understood. 



Oct. 2gth, 195th meeting. Mr. Sclater stated that the 

 Zoological Society had received from Sir George Grey a 

 curious New Zealand lizard, constituting a distinct sub-order, 

 which was sent by Dr. Hector, and called Hatteria punctata. 

 Professor Huxley expressed the opinion that this might be 

 a direct lineal representative of Hyperodapedon. 1 



Sir R. Murchison exhibited a curious white tissue which 

 had been found lining the hold of a ship which had recently 

 arrived in the Thames laden with maize from Trieste. This 

 was said to be the production of myriads of small maggots. 



1 The Tuatera, now called Sphenodon punctatus, which apparently is 

 confined to the small islands off the north-east of New Zealand, is not 

 only the most remarkable of all existing reptiles to which the term lizard 

 can be applied, but is the sole living representative of a distinct family, 

 as well as of an entire order ; and the difference between it and an ordinary 

 lizard immeasurably exceeds that by which the latter is separated from 

 a serpent (Lydekker). A foramen in the parietal bones of the skull covers 

 a rudimentary eye. Hyperodapedon was among its ancestral forms. 



