B. ETHEEIEGE, JTTN., ON ASTEOCEINITES. 103 



13. On the Occurrence of the Genus Asteoceinites {Austin) in the 

 Scotch Caeeonifeeoes Limestone Series ; with the Description oj 

 a new Species (A. ? Benniei), and Remarks on the Genus. By B. 

 Etheeiege, Jim., Esq., F.G.S. (Bead February 2, 1876.) 



[Plates XII. & XIII.] 



Inthoeection. — In a paper entitled " Proposed Arrangement of the 

 Echinodermata " &c.*, Messrs. Austin referred to a genus which 

 they proposed to establish under the name of Astracrinites, in the 

 following words : — "Another genus (Astracrinites of our MS.) offers 

 so many affinities to the recent and fossil Echinodermata, that we 

 consider it the most remarkable of all the known genera. By its 

 being lobed it approaches to the Lobistellaf ; its ambulacra, spines, 

 and arms mark it as allied to the Echinites, while the arrangement 

 of its calcareous plates connects it with the Lilies of the ocean. In 

 short, it possesses the lobes of a Starfish, the ambulacra and spines 

 of a Sea-urchin, and the plates of a Crinoid. It is further remark- 

 able by deviating from the quinary type so prevalent in the Echi- 

 nodermata : the lobes and ambulacra of this new genus are each 

 four in number." 



In the following year Messrs. Austin described this curious and 

 aberrant form under the name of Astracrinites tetragonus. Their 

 description is as follows % : — 



"Family ASTRACRDODiE, 



" Consisting of the genera Astracrinites and Aporocrinites ; 

 " Genus Asteoceinites, Austin. 

 " Def. — Dorso-central plate quadrangular, to which four pairs of 

 elongated plates are attached, imparting a lobed shape to the fossil. 

 In the retiring angles at the base of the four lobes are a like number 

 of ambulacra. Mouth central. Anus lateral. 



"A. tetragonus, Austin. 



" Def. — The plates of this species agree with the generic defini- 

 tion. Each of the elongated plates has two or three rows of minute 

 tubercles around its outer margin, apparently for the attachment of 

 spines. The ambulacra have each a double row of pores placed 

 centrally, with marginal tubercles. Near the centre of the dorso- 

 central plate is an oval eminence, apparently analogous to the ma- 

 dreporiform tubercle on the dorsal surface of the true Starfishes." 



In neither of these communications did the authors assign any 

 locality to their fossil ; but afterwards one of them, Fort-Major 

 Austin, in a paper read before this Society, " Observations on the 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3842, x. p. 112. 



t The Lobistella of Austin correspond to the Cirrhwrada of ForbeB. 



J Op. cit. 184b', xi. pp. 205, 206. 



