103 



perfect specimens than those which are at present known 

 will be necessary to be obtained, before the particular 

 characters of the species can be ascertained : more also is 

 required to be known respecting the fossil of M. Hiemer, 

 spoken of in p. 256 of the second volume of Organic 

 Remains, before it can be considered as being of a distinct 

 species. 



Whilst this part of the present work was in the hands 

 of the printer, I had the gratification of receiving Mr. 

 Miller's Natural History of the Crinoidea or Lily-shaped 

 Animals : the pleasure which I experienced in contemplating 

 the scientific and successful inquiries of this gentleman, in 

 subjects on which, as a student, I had myself toiled, led me 

 to hope that, by pointing out the importance and extent 

 of his discoveries, I should diffuse pleasure among my 

 readers, and, by giving them a glimpse of the treat there 

 prepared for them, render them eager to partake of a 

 banquet so rich and so cheap, it containing fifty illustrative 

 lithographic plates. 



In this work the numerous and interesting animals of 

 former worlds, which have been loosely ranged as encrinites 

 and pentacrinites, are classed as the members of one distinct 

 and peculiar family, distinguished as CRINOIDEA or Lily- 

 shaped Animals. The members of this family are placed 

 under four principal divisions, comprising nine genera, 

 each containing several species, with most of which we had 

 hitherto been but imperfectly acquainted, and of some 

 entirely ignorant. 



I. ARTICULATA, in which joints forming the superior 

 cup-like body of the animal articulate to each other, are 

 divided into three genera: I. Apiocrinites, the pear-like 

 lily-shaped animals, dividing into two species, 1. Ap. ro- 



