CATALOGUE 



OP 



THE BLASTOIDEA. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE BLASTOIDEA. 



The name "Blastoidea" was proposed by Thomas Say 1 in the year 1825 for a 

 group of Echinoderms which was clearly recognized by him as distinct from the 

 family "Crinoidea" established by Miller four years previously 2 . 



The zoological families of that date correspond in many cases to the classes of 

 more modern systems, just as many of the so-called genera established by Miller are 

 now the types of large families of Crinoids, the latter group itself being almost 

 universally recognized as a class of the subkingdom Echinodermata. But its limits 

 have been extended by many authors so as to include forms to which Miller's original 

 definition is by no means applicable. According to this definition, the cup-like body 

 containing the viscera of a Crinoid bears on its upper rim " five articulated arms, 

 dividing into tentaculated fingers, more or less numerous." 



Although, from his knowledge of Parkinson's ' Organic Remains of a Former 

 World,' Miller must have been aware of the existence of the " Asterial Fossil" 3 

 (the Encvinus Godoni of Be France 4 , or Pcntremites of Say and later writers), 



1 " On two new Genera and several Species of Crinoidea.'' Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1825, vol. iv. 

 pt. 2, p. 293. 



2 A Natural History of the Crinoidea (Bristol, 1S21), p. 7. 



3 Organic Remains of a Former World (London, 1SUS), vol. ii. p. 235, pi. xiii. figs. 36, 37. 

 /l * Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles (Paris, 1819), vol. xiv. p. 407. 



B 



