FOSSIL INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 505 



branches, pinnated in their entire length, presenting, at the 

 upper concave face, a series of pores. This body is supported 

 at its extremity by a long stem, vertical, polygonous, and arti- 

 culated ; and furnished, in its length, with a variable number of 

 verticillae, composed of five small simple branches, equally 

 articulated, and very probably adherent to submarine bodies. 

 We know, in reality, little more of this animal than what is here 

 defined ; and which is limited, if we may use the phrase, sim- 

 ply to its skeleton. Ellis, who, it would appear, has seen it in 

 a better state of preservation, adds, that, in the midst of a kind 

 of funnel or rose, formed by the rays of the individual which 

 he observed, there remained a sort of section of crustaceous 

 substance, of an oval form, about an inch long, three-quarters 

 of an inch wide, and a quarter of an inch high, in the centre 

 of which there was a little hole which appeared to communi- 

 cate with the internal part of the articulations of the stem. 

 But he says nothing respecting a membrane which covered it 

 altogether, and still less of the polypiferous tribes, which zoolo- 

 gists speak of who have adopted the opinion of Linnaeus. The 

 stem, or peduncle, the termination of which is not known, is 

 composed of a variable number of small calcareous pieces, 

 somewhat unequal in height and diameter ; in general, bv so 

 much the less long as they are more highly situated, and with 

 five angles, so much the more marked as the pieces are equally 

 approximated more to the body of the animal ; so much so, 

 that, superiorly, these pieces have five radii, separated by as 

 many flutings. They are articulated together by a plane sur- 

 face, which exhibits a star with five rays, from whence proceed 

 the fibres which serve as a means of union to all this stem, and 

 render it, without doubt, somewhat flexible. In the middle of 

 each piece is a rather small hole which, continued in all the 

 others, forms a canal which terminates in the centre of the 

 body, or umbel. It appears that there is, moreover, another 

 between the vertebrse, in the middle of each furrow. On the 

 length of the stem;,and at different distances, kinds of verticillae 



