CLASS I. ECniNODERMATA: ORDER 4. CRINOIDEA. 



629 



ENCRINID^. 



nishcd witli witli at least two bundles of muscular fiber— one for its contraction, the other for its 

 extension— we have three hundred thousand such in the body of a m\<r]Q Pentacrinits an 



amount of muscular apparatus 

 far exceeding any thing that has 

 been found elsewhere in the 

 Animal Creation." 



Dr. Buckiand describes these 

 animals as destined to find their 

 nourishment by spreading their 

 nets and moving these bodies 

 to a limited degree, while they 

 were yet fixed to the bottom 

 of the sea. After noting the 

 fact that few of these species 

 now exist in a living state, he 

 states that the substance of 

 vast beds of marble in Europe 

 and America "is almost as 

 entirely made up of the petri- 

 fied bones of Encrinidte as a 

 corn-rick is composed of straws. 

 Man applies it to construct his 

 palace and adorn his sepulcher, 

 but there are few who know 

 and fewer still who appreciate 

 the surprising fact that much 

 of this marble is composed of 

 the skeletons of millions of or- 

 ganized beings once endowed 

 with life." 



More than thirty species of 

 Crinoidea that have thus be- 

 come extinct, have been iden- 

 tified. The Medusa's Head 

 Pentacrinus, p. Cajmt-Me- 

 dnsce, is one of the existing 

 species, and a few specimens 

 of it have been found near the 

 islands of Barbadoes and Mar- 

 tinique. This may be consid- 

 ered as one of the greatest 

 wonders of nature, it being a 

 real animal, having blood, and 

 feeding upon other marine ani- 

 mals, yet having the form of a 

 plant, and ]i\ ing like a plant, 

 fixed to a rock in the deep sea. 

 It is supposed by naturalists 

 that it stands erect, yet yields to the fury of storms which agitate the waves, by bending down 

 and adhering for additional security, with its side arms, to such fixed objects as may be within 

 reach ; or sometimes it may fold its arms close to the column, so as to oft'er the least possible 

 surface to the tumultuous element. (See engraving p. 630.) 



THE ROSY FEATHER-STAR — COMATULA ROSACEA. 



