PENTACRINUS EUROP,EUS. 273 



appreciation of their beauty/ Each wheel-like joint 

 of the fossil Encrinite being generally perforated in 

 the centre, facility is thus afforded for stringing a 

 number of these objects together like beads, and in 

 this form the monks of old, according to tradition, 

 used the broken fragments of the lily-stars as rosaries. 

 Hence the common appellation of St. Cuthbert's 

 Beads, to which Sir Walter Scott alludes, 



' On a rock by Lindisfarn 

 St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame 

 The sea-born beads that bear his name.' 



One solitary species of -the Crinoid Star-fishes has of 

 late years been found to flourish in our own seas; it 

 is, however, affixed to a stalk (pedunculated) only in 

 the early periods of its existence. 



When first discovered by Mr. Thompson in its 

 infant state, the Pentacrinus Europceus was believed 

 to be a distinct animal. It was taken attached to 

 the stems of zoophytes of different orders, and 

 measured about three -fourths of an inch in height. 

 In form it resembled a minute comatula mounted on 

 the stalk of a Pentacrinus. Subsequent research has 

 proved that the little stranger was merely the young 

 state of the feather star Comatula rosacea, and that 

 although for a certain period attached to a slender 

 waving stem, the Pentacrinus, when arrived at a 

 certain stage of development, feels fully able to 

 start life on its own accord, and hence takes opportu- 

 nity to break off its early ties, and become a free 



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