12 



Von Buch on Crinoidea. 



those who could scarcely be expected to take long journeys at 

 their own expense, merely for the sake of science. The same 

 may be said of later discoveries, made under the Ordnance - 

 department. What has been done by such men as Messrs 

 Mackay, Drummond, and Moore, (and no one can more 

 cheerfully acknowledge that they have done much) is to their 

 honour, but should never be brought forward to the dispa- 

 ragement of those who were mere voluntary labourers. I now 

 leave it to the judgement of the reader, whether it was fair to 

 attribute almost all to Mr. Mackay and his contemporaries, 

 or to use language which might appear to a stranger to im- 

 ply, that even in 1833 the botany of Ireland had remained 

 amongst its enlightened inhabitants almost a sealed book, 

 [To be continued.] 



II. — On Sphaeronites and some other genera from which 

 Crinoidea originate. By L. Von Buch*. 



Perhaps there are few schemes of general structure sketched 

 by Nature within whose circle so many and so variously 

 modified forms have been unfolded as the beautiful Lilies 

 of the Ocean, the Encrinites or Crinoidea. From their 

 simple origin they diffuse themselves in every direction to the 

 most wonderfully complex and numerous forms, and then 

 suddenly return in the progress of creation to a propor- 

 tionately small number ; so much so, that of the numerous 

 genera and species of the primitive age, only the solitary 

 Pentacrinus has come down to our present period. But other 

 forms have unfolded and diffused themselves in all oceans. 

 The corolla of the lily has again closed, and perfectly enve- 

 loped Asterice and Echini, capable of greater movement and 

 development, have taken the place of the Crinoidea. 



No formation can produce a greater number of the most 

 varied forms of these creatures of the primitive age, than 

 the transition formation from the oldest strata to the carbo- 

 naceous series. Their chief character in this period is, that 

 the parts which envelope the body have still greatly the 

 superiority over the auxiliary members which are to convey 

 the nutriment, the far-spread many-fingered arms. This 

 body becomes smaller and smaller, and consists of fewer 

 pieces in the Jura formation ; the arms and fingers are on the 

 contrary longer, more compound, and in greater number. 

 With Comatula or the Euryalce, the body separates entirely 



* Read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, March 16, 1840, 

 and translated from the Berichte der Akademie. 



