VON BUCH ON THE CYSTIDEA. 21 



merely into one genus, but even into the same family, animals pro- 

 vided with numerous arms projecting from the upper part of a cup- 

 like body, and those unprovided with arms and completely inclosed 

 in a dome-shaped habitation, induced me to undertake a new and 

 distinct investigation of these Caryocrinites, of which there are now 

 many specimens in different collections. And in this, as in every 

 case in which nature is examined, so many extraordinary phsenomena 

 have presented themselves, such strange and astonishing symmetry 

 appears in the arrangement of the separate parts, and a law, appli- 

 cable to allied forms, and teaching the mode of development in them, 

 is set forth so clearly, that the statement of it cannot but excite our 

 admiration, and induce a great desire to discover and develope its 

 most minute peculiarities. For the object of natural history is not 

 to multiply species, to make catalogues, and to fill collections with 

 names ; but rather an earnest endeavour so to unite the different 

 forms into one w^hole, that we may obtain some insight into the my- 

 stery and the object of life. The determination of species, when 

 properly undertaken, ought to teach us a knowledge of the cha- 

 racters in which the great book of nature is written, in order that 

 we may read what is there laid open before us with reference to 

 the whole subject. 



Say has given a very clear description of Caryocrinus ornatus, 

 and his diagnosis enables us to distinguish this species from all those 

 Avhich it most resembles. He examined the form of each separate 

 plate; he described the position of each, and mentioned the tubercles 

 and the striae which cover the surface ; and he even showed the place 

 which his genus must occupy in the arrangement of Crinoidea pro- 

 posed by Miller. But notwithstanding all this clearness of de- 

 scription, the naturalist finds but little that is satisfactory ; the bear- 

 ing of each part upon the whole, the necessary relation of one part 

 to another, and what is called by Gcithe " die B^herrschung des 

 Ganzen in der Anschauung," these remain still hidden, and we are 

 taught only the character in which this section of the book of nature 

 is written, and not the meaning and the idea which the writing 

 illustrates. We might as well, in the case of an historical picture, 

 take into consideration the separate figures, describing each one with 

 the most minute accuracy, and mark the differences that exist be- 

 tween adjacent ones with the most careful attention, in order at last 

 to arrive at the conclusion that the picture belonged to a class in 

 which each part consisted of so many figures grouped together. 



The number of figures however is of no consequence in the pic- 

 ture, nor their individual peculiarities of form, but rather the mode 

 of grouping, and the manner in which the whole series work to- 

 gether towards the attainment of one common object. Just so it is 

 in the case before us ; but these things the species-maker, poring 



tion of the pores have escaped notice, and are inaccurately represented. Neither 

 is shown in this figure the way in which a line drawn through the intersection of 

 the pair of large hasal plates, and conunencing at the very bottom of the pelvis, may 

 he continued through the angular point of one side plate to the mouth, thus proving 

 distinctly that i\\fi whole animal had a bilateral arrangement of its parts. 



