314 CRINOIDEANS- 



CKINOIDEANS. 



Among the fossil families of the Radiated division of ani- 

 mals, the Geologist discovers one whose living analogues are 

 seldom seen, and whose vast numerical extent and extraor- 

 dinary beauty entitle it to peculiar consideration. 



Successions of strata, each many feet in thickness, and 

 many miles in extent, are often half made up of the calca- 

 reous skeletons of Encrinites. The Entrochal Marble of 

 Derbyshire, and the Black rock in the cliffs of Carboniferous 

 limestone near Bristol, are well known examples of strata 

 thus composed ; and show how largely the bodies of Ani- 

 mals have occasionally contributed by their remains, to 

 swell the Volume of materials that now compose the mine- 

 ral world. 



The fossil remains of this order have been long known 

 by the name of Stone Lilies, or Encrinites, and have lately 

 been classed under a separate order by the name of Cri- 

 no'idea. 



This order comprehends many Genera and numerous 

 Species, and is ranged by Cuvier after the Asteriae, in the 

 division of Zoophytes. Nearly all the species appear to 

 have been attached to the bottom of the Sea, or to floating 

 extraneous bodies.* 



• These animals form tlie subject of an elaborate and excellent work, 

 by Mr. Miller, entitled a Natural History of the Crinoidea, or Lily-shaped 

 Animals. The representations at Pi. 48, and Pi. 49, Fig^. 1. of one of the 

 most characteristic species of this family, being' that to which the name 

 of stone-lily was first applied; and the fig'ures of two other species at Pi. 

 47, Fig. 1,2, 5, will exemply the following definition given of them by 

 Mr. Miller. "An animal with a round, oval, or angular column, composed 

 of numerous articulating joints, supporting at its summit, a series of plates, 

 or joints, which form a cup-like body, containing the viscera, from whose 

 upper rim proceed five articulated arms, dividing into tentaculated fingers, 

 more or less nnmevous, surrounding the aperture of the mouth, (Pi. 47. 

 Figs. 6, X. 7, x) situated in the centre of a plated integument, which ex- 

 tends over the abdominal cavity, and is capable of being contracted into a 

 conical or proboscal shape," 



