Mr. F. A. Bather on British Fossil Grinoids. 377 



classification that shall show the true relationships of the 

 various genera. For it is this which has come to be the 

 object of Systematic Biology. Morphology nowadays devotes 

 itself to tracing the past history and true kinship of the forms 

 of life ; most especially is this the province of those divisions 

 of the science known as Embryology and Palaeontology. 

 But whereas Embryology deciphers its history in the palim- 

 psest of an individual, Palaeontology reads records that are both 

 consecutive and distinct. The first step then is to gather from 

 the successive fossils the actual history of the lines of life. 

 Two forms might be very similar, but if one came from the 

 Cambrian and the other from the Trias, we should hesitate 

 to place them near one another before having worked out the 

 actual descent ; indeed we should not be surprised to find 

 them belonging to quite different Families. This, however, 

 might equally be the case with two forms not only similar but 

 contemporaneous. How many a group once thought to be 

 self-centred and clearly circumscribed has been proved to have 

 a polygenetic origin ! 



But Palaeontology, while thus indicating the solution of one 

 problem of classification, puts before us another of no less 

 difficulty. The Zoologist, or — to better name him — the 

 Neontologist, deals with forms co-existing at a single epoch ; 

 the Palaeontologist has to deal with forms that come and go 

 through many an earth-period. A line of life not only gives 

 off branches, but itself varies, so that the later descendants 

 differ greatly from their earlier ancestors. The problem is to 

 express this latter variation in Classification. A new term is 

 required : a Series must be distinguished from a Division ; 

 the former is a difference in degree, the latter in kind. I have 

 thought it necessary to draw attention to these well-known 

 principles, for any Classification must depend on its methods 

 no less than on the facts to be represented by it, and every 

 one's method does not seem to be the same. It is in fact the 

 fashion with a certain school of naturalists to sneer at phylo- 

 geny. But surely to learn the history of the races of living- 

 beings, and the laws governing that history, is the object of 

 all our labours. On this alone can a true and final Classifi- 

 cation be based, and to express this in convenient form is the 

 Classifier's only purpose. 



Geological Histoey. 



Let us then turn to the history of the Fistulate Crinoids. 

 The outline of this history must be sought for in the time- 

 succession of the various genera. This is expressed in the 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. v. 27 



