THE CRINOID HYPOCRIXUS. 895 



was away in Timor, and access to the specimen proved for the 

 time impossible. 



My paper, therefore, was laid aside and other work taken up. 

 Until the publication of that work in July of this year (1913) I 

 could not return to Hypocrhius ; then, just as I was about to do 

 so, I was informed that Professor Wanner wanted to see the 

 specimens that were in my hands, because he intended to re- 

 describe the species in his account of the Permian Echinoderms 

 collected by himself in Timor. E^aturally I resumed at once the 

 communications with Professor Wanner, but, friendly though 

 our exchange of views and of information has been, I regret that 

 it has proved impossible for us to come to any arrangement more 

 convenient to our colleagues and to future workers than this : 

 that I shall publish my discussion of the original specimens, 

 and that the description of the new material shall be left to 

 Dr. Wanner. 



This paper, then, is admittedly a fragment. References to one 

 or two recent papers have been introduced, and my observations 

 have in places been checked or corroborated by the information 

 courteously sent me for this purpose by Prof. Wanner. But in 

 its main lines the paper stands as it was written more than 

 three years ago. It will, I hope, be accepted as Prolegomena to 

 Prof. Wanner's memoir, relieving him of much needful drudgery, 

 but not forestalling his more important results. 



Peevious History. 



The genus was founded by Beyrich (1862, Zeitschr. deutsch. 

 geol. Gesell. Bd. xiv. p. 537) to receive the single species Hypo- 

 crinus schneiderij based on a unique cup from the bed of a brook. 

 Kali Mati or Ajer Mati (the dead water), about half a kilometre 

 south of Kupang in Southern Timor. Beyrich (1865, Phys. 

 Abhandl. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, Jahrg. 1864, p. 83), when publishing 

 a fuller description, was doubtful whether his new genus was a 

 Crinoid or a Cystid, being inclined to the latter view by the 

 curious infra-radial position of the anal opening. 



The first author to notice the new genus was Quenstedt, who, 

 in his ' Handbuch der Petrefaktenkunde ' (ed. 2, 1867, p. 751), 

 definitely referred it to the Cystidea, placing it with Echino- 

 encrinites, but separating it from Cryptocrinus. In ' Petre- 

 faktenkunde Ueutschlands ' (1876, Bd. iv. p. 687), Quenstedt 

 put Hypocrinus, together with Cryptocrinxis^ near Echino- 

 encrinites and its allies, although he considered that the probable 

 presence of five large arms brought it near to the true Ciinoidea. 

 In the Atlas to that work, pi. 113, fig. 94, Quenstedt gave a view 

 of the posterior side, and another of the base. These views show 

 the relation of the basals to the posterior side, and thus indicate 

 the position of the small basal, a piece of information not given 

 by Beyrich. Unfortunately, Quenstedt's interpretation of the 

 base proves incorrect. In the third edition of the ' Handbuch 



60* 



