ENCRINITES. 



99 



rambles which, even after the lapse of years, cannot 

 be remembered without recalling the perfume of the 

 heather, the hum of insects, the glint of sunshine on 

 distant streams, and the shadows cast by cumulous 

 clouds on the brown slopes of sunlit hills ! 



These Encrinites are often spoken of as Zoophytes 

 — a term which, although still in use among natural- 

 ists, is a bad one. Encrinites have been loosely 

 grouped among Zoophytes, and so have been regarded 



Fig. 77. — Development of the recent Rosy Feather-star {_Antedon rosaceus): a, 

 adult Feather-star ; l>, different stages in growth of the young stalked forms, 



with the same degree of haziness. It is a duty, first 

 of all, to disabuse the mind of errors, previously to 

 placing before it legitimately deduced facts ; there- 

 fore I may say that none of the Encrinite family 

 have any or the slightest relationship with plants of 

 any kind. They are most nearly related to such com- 

 mon marine animals — belonging to a group having 

 a world-wide distribution — as the star-fishes and sea- 



