272 PROFESSOR FORBES. 



The last-mentioned group of animals were analogous 

 to the present tribe of Star-fishes, and are now 

 nearly extinct. The body of the Lily-star, which 

 resembled some beautiful radiate flower, was affixed 

 to a long, slender stalk, composed of a series of 

 solid plates superposed upon one another, bound 

 together by a fleshy coat, and made to undulate to 

 and fro in any direction at the will of the animal. 

 The stalk was firmly attached to some foreign sub- 

 stance, and consequently the Crinoid Star-fish, unlike 

 its modern representative, could not rove about in 

 search of prey, but only capture such objects as came 

 within reach of its widely expanded arms. ' Scarcely 

 a dozen kinds of these beautiful creatures,' observes 

 Professor Forbes, * now live in the seas of our globe, 

 and individuals of these kinds are comparatively 

 rarely to be met with ; formerly they were among 

 the most numerous of the ocean's inhabitants, so 

 numerous that the remains of their skeletons con- 

 stitute great tracts of the dry land as it now appears. 

 For miles and miles we may walk over the stony 

 fragments of the Crinoidae, fragments which were 

 once built up in animated forms, encased in living 

 flesh, and obeying the will of creatures among the 

 loveliest of the inhabitants of the ocean. Even in 

 their present disjointed and petrified state, they 

 excite the admiration not only of the naturalist, but 

 of the common gazer ; and the name of stone lily, 

 popularly applied to them, indicates a popular 



