310 Mr. F. A. Bather on British Fossil Crinoids. 



begin with the Dudley Crinoids, with which everyone is 

 acquainted, but of which we have as yet no real knowledge. 

 And I shall deal first with the section that appears to be most 

 simple morphologically — the Inadunata Fistulata ; what 

 genera are herein contained will be seen from the ensuing 

 paper. 



I would also ask anyone who may be kind enough to lend 

 me specimens to endeavour to give some definite information 

 as to horizon and locality. The late President of the Geolo- 

 gical Society lamented the lack of British palaeontologists ; 

 but how can palaeontology exist at all in a land where almost 

 every Palaeozoic fossil is labelled : — " Wenlock Limestone, 

 Dudley," " Devonian, Devonshire," or " Carboniferous, 

 Yorkshire"? 



II. The Classification of the Inadunata Fistulata. 

 (Plate XIV.) 



Common Characters. 



Under the name " Fistulata " Messrs. Wachsmuth and 

 Springer brought together in 1886 the following families as 

 defined by them, viz., Hybocrinidae, Heterocrinidae, Anomalo- 

 crinidae, Belemnocrinidae, Cyathocrinidae, Poteriocrinidae, 

 Encrinidae, Astylocrinidae, Catillocrinidae, and Calceocrinidae. 

 In common with other Inadunata the genera referred to these 

 families possess the following characters : — no interradials, 

 and no plates above the radials proper, are included in the 

 dorsal cup ; there may, however, be from 1 to 3 plates (not 

 homologous with interradials) in the posterior interradius ; 

 infrabasals may or may not be present; the plates of the cup 

 are joined to one another by close suture. Among them- 

 selves the genera of the Fistulata agree in the following cha- 

 racters : — the food-grooves pass from the arms, along the 

 surface of the tegmen, between the orals (when these are 

 present) to the mouth, and are protected, on the disk as 

 on the arms, by alternating covering-plates ; in the anal or 

 posterior interradius the perisome of the tegmen is extended 

 ventrally as a sac often of large size. 



The ventral sac of the Fistulata, from which the name of 

 the group is derived, appears to differ from the anal tube of 

 some Camerata no less than from the smaller anal opening 

 of other Crinoids. Dr. Wachsmuth in 1877 wrote as 

 follows : — " It evidently formed a large portion of the 



* " Notes on the Internal and External Structure of Palaeozoic Crinoids," 

 Amer. Journ. xiv. 115-127, Newhaven, 1877, see pp. 12(3-127. 



