10 Dr. P. H. Carpenter on the 



■svill be evident from the following passage * : — " Carpenter 

 and Waclismutli call the ' subradials ' the ' basals ' in all 

 cases where thcj occur, and the lower plates ' under-basals ; ' 

 but where there are no ' subradials ' they follow the well- 

 established nomenclature in calling the first circle of plates 

 * basals.' " These very plates, however, are recognized by 

 other palaeontologists as representing the subradials, which 

 Miller says are not found in monocyclic Crinoids. It is 

 unfortunate that a work which is likely to be so generally 

 used by students and collectors should in this respect be 

 some years behind the times. The only American writers 

 on Crinoids besides Miller f who have not yet publicly 

 adopted the rational nomenclature are Hall, Grant, Uh-ich, 

 White, and Wiiitfield ; but I am not aware that any one of 

 them has written on dicyclic Crinoids since 1882, so that 

 they have had no need to make a decision. One would have 

 thought that the conversion in succession of Messrs. Wetherby, 

 Worthen, and Kingueberg would have led Miller to reconsider 

 his position, which is at present a somewhat isolated one, as 

 is shown in the accompanying table (pp. 8 and 9) ; and he can- 

 not therefore any longer claim to be using " the established 

 or prevaling methods of description^' as he did in 1883. 



1 have endeavoured to show that the German palaeontolo- 

 gists do not always employ the term basals when tiiey might 

 advantageously do so. Fewkes, on the other hand, has used 

 it too freely. Referring to certain plates which appear on 

 the abactinal hemisome of the young Amphiura, he says that 

 they " form in the interradii, and may therefore be called 

 iuterradials or basals;" \ and he continues: — " The tirst set 

 of interradial plates may be known as the abaxial basals or 

 first iuterradials." In the next line these are called " abaxial 

 iuterradials," and a little further on (p. 130) he mentions a 

 new plate as " beginning to form between an abaxial and an 

 adaxial interradial." lioplying to my criticisms on the loose- 

 ness ot his terminology § and the way in which he has con- 

 tused terms which previous writers on Crinoid morphology 



• 'North American GeolDgy aud Palseoutologv,' Ciuciuuati, 18S0, 

 p. 212. 



t Since the above was Avritton Messrs. Miller aud Gui-ley have pub- 

 lished descriptions of some new Uriuoids, in which the term subradials is 

 still euiphiyed — "JJeseiiptiou of some new (.it-nera and Species of Echino- 

 dermata lioui the Coal measures aud Subcarbouiferous rocks of Indiana, 

 Missouri, aud Iowa," Journ. Ciucinu. Sec. Nat. Hist. 1890, vol. xiii. p. 3. 



I "Uu the Development of the (.'uleareous Plates of Amp/iiura," Jiull. 

 Mus. C'ouip. Zocil. 1887, vol. xiii. p. 128. 



§ "(>u the Development of the Apical Plates in A)iiphiura stjiiiiniafa,'' 

 Quart. Journ. Micr. Sei. I8b7, vol. xxviii. p. 313. 



