334 Mr, P. EL Carpenter on Democrinus Parfaiti. 



Holopodidse, so that the u centrodorsal " of Gotylecrinus and 

 the " support " of Eudesicrinus should really be considered 

 as composed, in part at least, of ancliylosed basals ? 



Thus, then, I have endeavoured to show that the supposed 

 absence of basals in certain Crinoids mostly rests upon empi- 

 rical reasoning alone ; and that when we come to inquire into 

 the matter rationally, i. e. from the point of view of morpho- 

 logy, we not only find good reason to believe in the existence 

 of these plates, but also that their supposed absence involves 

 considerable morphological difficulties. 



XLII1. — Note on Democrinus Parfaiti. 



By P. Herbert Carpenter, M.A. 



In a recent number of the ' Comptes Rendus'"*, Prof. E. 

 Perrier has given a preliminary description of a stalked Crinoid 

 which was dredged by the c Travailleur ' at a depth of 1900 

 metres off Cape Blanc, on the coast of Morocco. Believing 

 it to be new to science, he has named it Democrinus Parfaiti. 

 His description runs as follows : — u Le Democrinus se dis- 

 tingue immediatement de tous les autres genres par la compo- 

 sition de son calice forme de cinq longues basales constituant 

 k elles seules un calice en entonnoir ; un sillon circulaire separe 

 ces cinq basales de cinq radiales rudimentaires, en forme de 

 croissant, alternant avec elles et surmontees elles-m^mes de 

 cinq radiales axillaires libres, rectangulaires, mobiles, sur 

 lesquelles se fixent respectivement cinq bras, beaucoup rnoins 

 larges que les radiales. Ces bras se brisent trfes facilement 

 au niveau de leur articulation avec les radiales axillaires, qui 

 se rabattent aiors sur la voftte du calice." Prof. Perrier adds 

 that in Rhizocrinus " les basales sont confondues et le calice 

 forme en partie de radiales." 



^ It would appear therefore that he considers Democrinus to 

 differ from Rhizocrinus in having basals which are not 

 "confondues," but form the whole of the calyx. He 

 has, however, been misled by the erroneous descriptions of 

 the basals of Rhizocrinus lofotensis which were given by 

 Sars and Ludwig ; and he seems, like the latter author, to 

 have been unacquainted with the observations of Pourtales 

 upon the calyces of this species and of R. Rawsoni } to which 

 I have referred above f. 



* " Sur un nouveau Crinoide fixe, le Demoe r mm Parfaiti, provenant des 

 dragages du < Travailleur/ n Comptes Rendus, tome xcvi. no. 7, Feb. 12, 

 1883, pp. 450, 451. This was translated in the March number of the 

 1 Annals/ ser. 5, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224. 



t Ante, p. 328. 



