12 Von Buch on Crinoidea. 
those who could scarcely be expected to take long journeys at 
their own expense, merely for the sake of science. The same 
may be said of later discoveries, made under the Ordnance 
department. What has been done by such men as Messrs 
Mackay, Drummond, and Moore, (and no one can more 
cheerfully acknowledge that they have done much) is to their 
honour, but should never be brought forward to the dispa- 
ragement of those who were mere voluntary labourers. I now 
leave it to the judgement of the reader, whether it was fair to 
attribute almost all to Mr. Mackay and his contemporaries, 
or to use language which might appear to a stranger to im- 
ply, that even in 1833 the botany of Ireland had remained 
amongst its enlightened inhabitants almost a sealed book. 
[To be continued. ] Via 126 . 
II.—On Spheronites and some other genera from which 
Crinoidea originate. By L. Von Bucu*. 
Preruaps there are few schemes of general structure sketched 
by Nature withm whose circle so many and so variously 
modified forms have been unfolded as the beautiful Lilies 
of the Ocean, the Encrinites or Crinoidea. From their 
simple origin they diffuse themselves in every direction to the 
most wonderfully complex and numerous forms, and then 
suddenly return in the progress of creation to a propor- 
tionately small number; so much so, that of the: numerous 
genera and species of the primitive age, only the solita 
Pentacrinus has come down to our present period. But other 
forms have unfolded and diffused themselves in all oceans. 
The corolla of the lily has again closed, and perfectly enve- 
loped Asteria and Echini, capable of greater movement and 
development, have taken the place of the Crinoidea. 
No formation can produce a greater number of the most 
varied forms of these creatures of the primitive age, than 
the transition formation from the oldest strata to the carbo- 
naceous series. ‘Their chief character in this period is, that 
the parts which envelope the body have still greatly the 
superiority over the auxiliary members which are to convey 
the nutriment, the far-spread many-fingered arms. This 
body becomes smaller and smaller, and consists of fewer 
pieces in the Jura formation ; the arms and fingers are on the 
contrary longer, more compound, and in greater number. 
With Comatula or the Euryale, the body separates entirely 
* Read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, March 16, 1840, 
and translated from the Berichte der Akademie. 
