CRINOIDEZ. 269 
like any flower of the fields, or to the mother stem like the branch of 
a tree, until in due course they attained the almost adult state, when 
the flexible stem which holds them fixed either to the soil or parent 
stem breaks, and the animal, now free, launches itself into the liquid 
medium, now resembling its parent form, and goes to live a proper 
and independent existence; in listening to a recital so opposed in 
appearance to the ordinary laws of Nature, we should be inclined to 
tax the narrator of such incredible facts with error or folly. Never- 
theless, all these facts are now perfectly established. The being 
which presents these marvels has nothing of the fabulous about it ; 
it is the Comatula mediterranea. 
In the Pentacrinoid stage of Comatula (Fig. 107), the presence of 
a digestive apparatus has been distinctly traced. It is a sort of 
irregular sac, with a central mouth on the upper surface, and another 
orifice situated at a little distance from the mouth, and evidently 
intended as an outlet for the products of digestion. The arms of 
these creatures, which are spreading or folded up, according to their 
wants, are provided with ambulacral feet, which, serving at once as 
organs of absorption and having vibratile cilia, are at the same time 
organs of respiration. Such are these curious beings: they occupy a 
sort of middle or transition state between animals permanently fixed 
to some spot and those capable of motion, representing in our own 
times the last remains of extinct generations. Every specimen of 
the Crinoidez furnished with arms presents evidence of their repro- 
duction or re-integration. 
ASTERIAD OR STAR-FISHES. 
In walking on the sea-shore at low tide, your eyes have often seen 
the animal which commonly and sometimes scientifically bears the 
name of star-fish half-buried in the sand. It is so regular and geo- 
metrical in its.form that it has more the appearance of being the 
production of man’s hand than of being a creature which breathes and 
moves. The divine Geometrician who created it never realised a 
creature more regularly finished in shape or more perfectly harmo- 
nious in symmetry. 
OPHIURID&, 
The Ophiuride are thus named from two Greek words (gis, a 
serpent, and oipa, a tail), from their fancied resemblance to the tail 
of a serpent. These Echinoderms are met with in almost every 
sea, both in those of the tropical and temperate regions ; they are 
