22 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



the arm-bases strongly elevated between them. Stem round, long, terminating 

 in a large, spheroidal, chambered body, having the functions of a root. 



The literary status of the most important described species is unsatis- 

 factory. Messrs. Waagen and Jahn profess themselves unable from the 

 works of these authors to identify with certainty the two species of Zenker 

 and Schlotheim, and while in one place retaining the name elegans as a term 

 of convenience for a group of species, they ignore it as the name of the type 

 species, but assign excavatus to a form which they redescribe as probably 

 including that of Schlotheim and three new varieties. They also describe 

 Scyphocrinus subornatus of Barrande (MS.), and another new species of their 

 own, S. decoratus. 



This course of the authors as to the type species was criticized by Bather ' 

 in 1900; but while for the purpose of a review he might afford to accept it 

 " for the sake of concord," that cannot be done in this paper, which has to deal 

 with important new material for which a correct name is required. Zenker 

 gave both a description and recognizable figures of the form to which he 

 applied the name elegans. As to this Waagen and Jahn say, on p. 42 : " The 

 description of Scyphocrinus elegans Zenker agrees perfectly with the greater 

 part of the specimens which we arrange in three new varieties : Scyphocrinus 

 excavatus var. typ., var. Schlotheimi, and var. Schroeteri; there is also a 

 remarkable agreement between the specimens and the figures given by Zen- 

 ker " ; on the other hand, " the species of Zenker differs notably from the 

 crinoids * * * described by Barrande under the name S. subornatus and by 

 us under the name S. decoratus and 5". excavatus var. zenonis." But having 

 observed among their material several varieties no particular one of which 

 is indicated by the earlier figures, they conclude that " we cannot then apply 

 to our specimens either the name excavatus Schlotheim, which has priority, 

 or that of elegans, given later by Zenker ; but from respect to the memory of 

 our predecessor we designate one of our species by the name excavatus." And 

 this they proceed to do throughout, citing the species as of " Schlotheim sp. p." 

 Now Zenker's figures and description, instead of mere arm fragments like 

 those of Schroeter to which Schlotheim gave his name, were based upon speci- 

 mens quite sufficient to afford a generic diagnosis, and to show that the species 

 for which they formed the types is the one characterized by sharply sculptured 

 plates. The species S. excavatus, as described by Waagen and Jahn, is con- 

 fessedly not identifiable from the works of Schlotheim, and for the purposes 

 of credit it must date from Waagen and Jahn, 1899. Therefore Zenker's prior 

 name, elegans, must hold for those forms which they admit to agree with his 

 description and figures — leaving excavatus to stand, if at all, for their variety 

 zenonis, which they say does not so agree. 



'Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, vol. 6, July, p. 115. 



