172 



C R I N O I D E A. 



angular columns, occasioned them to receive the 

 names starstone, asterice, &c. 



By some these bodies were considered as inorganic 

 filtrations, similar in their nature to stalactites. By 

 others they were looked upon as the vertebral joints 

 offish, or as portions of some unknown species of coral. 

 While others, who had more accurately observed the 

 column and its termination, compared them to plants, 

 whence they obtained the name of the stone lily, in 

 consequence of the shape of the superior extremity of 

 some of these remains, which very closely resembles 

 a flower of that kind. They were at length con- 

 sidered as appendages to star fish, and were therefore 

 supposed to have probably belonged to the Aateria, 

 and as it was thought probable that they might yet 

 exist in unexplored parts of the ocean, researches 

 were anxiously set on foot to discover them in a 

 living or recent state. At length a portion of an 

 animal was found which bore a strong resemblance to 

 the asterial columns so frequently found in the Lias 

 and Oolite, and which, upon further investigation, 

 appeared to possess an absolute identity of generic 

 characters. Linnaeus classed this species under his 

 genus his, calling it Isis asteria. Lamarck, however, 

 finding it did not agree in its characters with that 

 genus, removed it to his genus Encrinus, terming it 

 Encrinus caput Medusae. 



The fossils were however found to admit of at 

 least two generic divisions, distinguished by the shape 

 of the vertebrae. The one, the Encrinus, having them 

 chiefly of a cylindrical form, and the other, the 

 Pentacrinus, in which the vertebrae are principally 

 pentagonal. Under these names, various species 

 were formed, and which are described by Parkinson 

 as the lily, cap, turban, stag's-horn, &c. encrinites. 



Since that time this family has been most ably 

 illustrated by the researches of Mr. Miller, who, in his 

 " History of the Crinoidea, or Lily-shaped Animals," 

 has reduced these remains into genera and species, in 

 the most satisfactory and scientific manner. 



By him these numerous and interesting remains 

 of animals of former times, which were before loosely 

 described under the appellations of Encrinites and 

 Pentamnites, are classed as the members of one 

 distinct and peculiar family, distinguished as the 

 crinoidea, or lily-shaped animals. The members of 

 this family are placed under four principal divisions, 

 comprising nine genera, each containing several 

 species, most of which were before that time very 

 imperfectly described, and some of which were even 

 utterly unknown. 



The name Crinoidea is derived by him from a Greek 

 word, signifying lily-shaped, and he defines the general 

 character of this family as " an animal wilh a round, 

 oval, or angular column, composed of numerous arti- 

 culating joints, supporting at its submit a series of 

 plates or joints, forming a cup-like body, containing 

 the viscera, from whose upper rim proceed five 

 articulated arms, dividing into tentaculated fingers, 

 more or less numerous, surrounding the aperture of 

 the mouth, situated in the centre of a plated integu- 

 ment, which extends over the abdominal cavity, and 

 is capable of being contracted into a conical or 

 proboscal shape." 



In his first division, the joints, which form the in- 

 ferior cup-like body of the animal, articulate with 

 each other, whence the name Articulata given to this 

 division, which contains three genera : Apiocrinites, 

 the pear-like lily-shaped animals, having two species ; 



Encrinites, the true lily-shaped animals, containing 

 one species ; and Pentacrinites, five-angled lily-shaped 

 animals, comprising live species. 



In the second division, the plate-like joints forming 

 the cup, containing the viscera, articulate imperfectly 

 with each other, from which circumstance it receives 

 the name Seiui-articulata. In this division he has but 

 one genus, the Pateriocrinites, or vase-like lily-shaped 

 animal. Of these he describes two species. 



His third division he names Inarticulala. In this 

 the plates adhere by sutures, lined by muscular in- 

 teguments. 



These he divides into Platycrinites, broad-plated 

 lily-shaped animals, six species ; Cyatlioainitcs, or 

 cup-like lily-shaped animals, four species ; Actynocri- 

 nites, or radiated lily-shaped animals, three species ; 

 and Rkodocrinites, or rose-like lily-shaped animals, 

 one species. 



The fourth division contains those having the joints 

 of the pelvis anchylosing to the first columnar joint ; 

 this has one. genus, the JSugeuiacriiutes, of which but 

 one species was then known to exist. 



Since the publication of Miller's work, many new 

 genera have been discovered, many of the species 

 have been subdivided, and the genus Af)iucrinile.i, in 

 particular, has been very fully elucidated by the 

 researches of J. Channing Pearse, Esq., F. G. S., who, 

 in a highly interesting paper, " On the Oolite forma- 

 tion and its contents, as shown in a quarry at Bear- 

 field, near Bradford," lately read before the Geological 

 Society, but not hitherto published, has exhibited 

 evidences of the most profound research and minute 

 inquiry, joined to a close attention to the scientific 

 arrangement of these bodies, highly creditable to his 

 talents and observation ; and as the information con- 

 tained in that paper is perfectly new and also of great 

 interest, some account of his labours may not prove 

 uninteresting. 



The first species of Miller, viz. : the Ajjiacrinitet 

 rotundus, is the one to which the observations of this 

 gentleman more particularly apply. This he pro- 

 poses to divide into three species. He was led to 

 form these distinctions from his peculiar advantages 

 in living upon the spot where these remains are found 

 in great abundance, and consequently being able to 

 procure them in greater perfection than any collector 

 had hitherto been enabled to do. In their generic 

 description, he states them to be composed ot a root 

 or .pedicle, from which rises a round column, having 

 at the top a pear-shaped head, which supports arms 

 and fingers, containing a series of cavities in their 

 interior, which he considers as having contained the 

 stomach and alimentary canal. The whole animal is 

 composed of a vast number of flat joints or plates, 

 which articulate with each other by lines radiating 

 from the centre, which are, as it were, dovetailed into 

 the next joint, and in like manner receive the radii of 

 that joint. He supposes that they were covered 

 externally with an epidermis, or skin, which was 

 muscular, by the contraction of whose fibres, lateral 

 motion in every direction was produced, by which 

 means they were enabled to search for food wherever 

 it might be found within their reach. The root or 

 pedicle consists of a number of concentric laminae, 

 forming a cone, which surrounds, the central column, 

 the base being placed at the lower part, or at the 

 point where the animal attached itself to rocks, &c., 

 and, by forming a sort of buttress or support to the 

 column, added very materially to its strength. 



