1854.] 



NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF CYSTIDEA. 



215 



World, are peculiarly susceptible ; and some of the examples of 

 Scottish gold personal ornaments fully correspond with the pro- 

 bable results of such an anticipatory use of the metals."* 



The metallurgic arts were, however, introduced into Northern 

 Europe at a period prior to the dawn of authentic history, but 

 now designated, from the remains of its novel arts, " the Bronze 

 Period;" and America had its corresponding ante-historic era, 

 during which the metallurgic arts of Mexico and Yucatan were 

 developed among a people to all appearance of the same race as 

 the mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley, and, like them, 

 totally ignorant of the more laborious and difficult art of smelting 

 and forging the iron ore. 



Professor Wilson having pointed out, somewhat in detail, the 

 great similarity observable between the stone, bone, and horn 

 implements and weapons of the American Indians and those 

 found in the ancient sepulchral barrows of Northern Europe, 

 and also the analogies between the copper tools and weapons of 

 the mounds of the Mississippi Valley and the copper and bronze 

 relics of Europe's pre-historic period : concluded by remarking 

 that it must be regarded as a subject of just interest thus to per- 

 ceive that aboriginal races, had been displaced by the historic 

 races from the ancient area of Europe, equally rude in their arts, 

 and low in the scale of civilization, with those whom the philan- 

 thropist and the scientific observer now watch with a common 

 regret disappearing before the advances of the European on this 

 great continent, like the dews of morning before the rising sun. 



On some New Crenera and Species of Cystidea from the 

 Trenton Limestone* 



Read before the Canadian Institute, February 11th, by E. Billings, 

 Barrister at Law, Bytown, Canada West. 



The Cystidea were first set apart as a separate order of the 

 Echinodermata by the late illustrious geologist, Leopold Von 

 Buch, in a memoir which appeared in 1345 in the Transactions 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and afterwards in 

 1846 translated and published in the Journal of the Geological 

 Society of London. From the latter publication the following 

 definition of the order is extracted : 



" The Cystidea were natural bodies supported on a stem or 

 pedicle, which was attached to the ground ; their surface, more or 

 less spherical, was covered by a great number of polyhedral plates, 

 accurately fitted to one another, and between these plates were 

 certain openings, necessary for the performance of the animal 

 functions. 



" With regard to the openings on the surface, we find in all 

 the Cystidea, 1st, that the mouth was planted in the central part 

 of the upper surface, generally in a moveable proboscis covered 

 with minute plates ; 2nd, that besides this mouth, and close to it, 

 there is generally, if not always, a small anal orifice penetrating 

 the plate, but not itself surrounded with any plates peculiar to it; 

 3rd, that further towards the middle, but almost invariably on the 

 upper half of the body on which the mouth is placed, there rises 

 a round or oval aperture, not connected with the mouth, and often 

 covered by a five or six-sided pyramid, which seems to be com- 

 posed of as many little valves. This probably forms the ovarial 

 orifice of the animal." — Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, 

 vol. ii., p. 29. 



Von Buch also supposed that the Cystidea were not provided 



*Wilsou , B Prc-hisiorie Annals of Scotland, p. 214. 



with arms similar to those of the Crinoidea, but since the date of 

 his monograph several species have been brought to light furnished 

 with appendages which may be called arms. These, together 

 with certain other organs supposed to be peculiar to this group, 

 will be referred to hereafter. 



The Cystidea are rare fossils, and as yet but imperfectly under- 

 stood in some respects. Von Buch, in the article above quoted, 

 describes seven species known in 1845 on the continent of Europe, 

 and in 1848 Professor E. Forbes, in the Memoirs of the Geologi- 

 cal Survey of England, gave an account of twenty-one species 

 discovered in the fcilurian rocks of Great Britain. Of these, two 

 were found to be identical with Spheronites aurantium and 

 Caryocystites granatum, also described by Von Buch, while 

 several others were mere fragments, recognised to be portions of 

 Cystideans. It is probable that in all Europe not more than thirty 

 species had been clearly established in 1848. 



The American species already made known are only seven. 

 They are the following : 



1st. A fossil found at Bytown many years ago by Dr. Bigsby, 

 and described by Mr. G. B. Sowerby in Vol. II. of the Zoological 

 Journal, p. 318. Professor E. Forbes refers this curious organism 

 to the genus Agelacrinites of Vanuxem. 



2nd. EcMno-encrinites anatiformis, in Vol. I. of Hall's Palae- 

 ontology of New York. This species and the former are the only 

 Cystidea yet described as having been discovered in the Trenton 

 limestone. It has been found by Mr. Logan in Lower Canada, 

 and in Owen's Report on the Geology of Wisconsin, p. 505, it is 

 said to have been met with in the upper magnesian limestone of 

 that region, a formation classified as the equivalent of the Trenton 

 limestone. 



3rd. Callocystites Jewettii. 



4th. Apiocystites Elegans. 



5th. Hemicystites Parasitica. The three last are from the 

 Niagara shale, and described in Vol. II. of the Palajontology of 

 New York. 



6th. Lepadocrinites Gebhardii, from the Pentamerus lime- 

 stone, figured but not described at p. 346 in Mather's Report on 

 the Geology of the First District of New York. 



7th. Agelacrinites Hamiltonensis, from the Hamilton group, 

 noticed in Vanuxem's Report on the Geology of the Third Dis- 

 trict at p. 158, and figured at the end of the volume. 



I now propose to add to the above list of American Cystidea 

 several new species discovered by me within the last two years in 

 the Trenton limestone at Bytown and in the immediate vicinity. 

 The first of these, as it constitutes a new genus, may be called 

 Glyptocystites, on account of the profusion of sculpture with which 

 its surface is ornamented. Its description is as follows : 



GENUS GLYPTOCYSTITES. (JVoV. gen.) 



[Greek, yXxmros, sculptilis, and ki><ttis, vesica."] 



Body oblong, composed of four horizontal, irregular series of 

 plates, so disposed as to form five nearly vertical pillars, each of 

 which supports an arm ; pelvic plates, four ; second, third, and 

 fourth series of five plates each, summit closed by several small 

 pieces ; arms originating from the top of the fourth series, deflected 

 downwards, and attached to the sides throughout their whole 

 length; a sinuated groove, terminating upwards in the mouth, 

 occupies the centre of each arm ; a row of tentacles on each side 

 of each groove, mouth situated in the apex, and closed by a valvu- 



