Prof. De Konincli. — Neiv British Echinoderms. 259 



both possess palseontological collections such as are very seldom met 

 with amongst private individuals. The museum of Mr. Edward 

 Wood rivals many public collections. It contains one of the most 

 complete series of British Carboniferous fossils known, and more 

 especially a magnificent suite of specimens of the several species of 

 Woodocrinus — a genus formed by me, and to which I have already 

 had the honour of calling the attention of the Academy.^ 



Mr. John Gray, who resides at Hagley, not far from Dudley, 

 possesses an admirable collection of Silurian fossils from that lo- 

 cality, developed and classified with extreme care. 



It is in the first of these two scientific depositories that I met with 

 the specimen of Palcechinus, of which I here give a figure of the 

 natural size, as drawn by me on the spot, with all possible care and 

 correctness. 



This specimen is remarkable on account of the presence of the 

 apical plates, which are well preserved, and which have not yet been 

 seen in any other specimen of the same genus. Though it has been 

 compressed from top to bottom, the anal aperture remains perfectly 

 intact. It is easy to see that it is limited by one of the borders of 

 each of the five genital plates that surround it. Of these plates, four 

 are identical : the form is heptagonal ; they are broader than long ; 

 each of them is perforated by three rounded and well-marked pores, 

 placed in a line near the inferior border of the plate, and parallel to 

 the border on every side. Each of these plates forms the summit of 

 one of the sides of the test. 



The fifth plate (corresponding to the irregular side) is also heptan- 

 gular in outline, but differs in form from the other four, being longer 

 than broad, and having only a single pore, placed on the median line 

 of the plate, near the border of the anal aperture ; that is to say, in 

 a situation opposite to that occupied by the pores in the other plates, 

 as can readily be seen by referring to Fig. 1 in Plate VII. 



The specimens I have examined do not show any trace of ocellar 

 plates. 



I had long since observed genital plates, perfectly identical to 

 those I have just described, among the fossil debris from the 

 Carboniferous Limestone of the environs of Tournay ; but, as I 

 always found them isolated, it was impossible to determine their 

 real place and precise signification. There cannot be any longer the 

 slightest uncertainty as to their nature. The specimen in Mr. Wood's 

 collection, and also the detached plates found at Tournay, seem to 

 belong to Palcechinus spharicus of Scouler.'^ Mr. Wood's example 

 comes from the Carboniferous Limestone of Kirkby- Stephen, in 

 Westmoreland, where fragments of Palcechinus are not uncommonly 

 met with. 



If there still remained any doubt as to the presence of Echinoder- 

 mata in the paleeozoic strata, my observations would tend to remove 



1 Bulletins Acad. Eoyal Bruxelles, 1854 ; Geologist, vol. i., 1868, p. 12, plates i. 

 and ii. ; Geologicax Magazine, vol. ii., 1865, p. 163, plate v. 



2 M'Goy's "Synopsis of the Carboniferous Fossils of Ireland," p. 172, pi. xxiv., 

 fig. 5. 



