NEW SPECIES OF ENCRINITE AND H YPANTHOCRINITE. 27 
interest. The stoniach_, as the receptacle of its food is termed^ 
is generally hidden beneath the surrounding rays^ and there 
were few specimens know^i which gave any idea of its peculiar 
form^ until this was disclosed by cutting the fossil through and 
grinding down and polishing the section thus obtained. But 
although the interior of the stomach was thus shown, we were 
still ignorant of the shape and appearance of its exterior surface. 
One or two specimens are_, hovv^ever, now in the museum of the 
above society_, which supply this desideratum, and which, toge- 
ther with the sections just alluded to, enable us to understand 
thoroughly the whole of that internal portion of the encrinite 
which in ordinary specimens is completely concealed from view. 
The possession of several new specimens of the hypanthocri- 
nite, hitherto a rare species, has enabled this society to obtain 
both cross and lateral sections of this fossil. These sections 
show distinctly the very curious arrangement of the interior, 
composed of solid plates of bone, radiating from the central tube 
which connects the mouth or proboscis with the stomach, and 
enclosing between them the long delicate rays of the encrinite. 
This cm'ious and anomalous genus was first of all described 
and named by Professor Phillips, in Mr. Murchison^s Silurian 
System. Its outward appearance is essentially different from 
that of any other known genus. The whole of the pinnse which 
proceed from the rays, in all the specimens hitherto discovered, 
are closely packed up and nearly or entirely concealed from 
view. The encrinite in this closed state assumes an almost per- 
fectly round shape, somewhat cylindrical, the surface of which is 
entirely composed of the rays and the solid ribs, alternating be- 
tween each pair of rays, and which, as will afterwards be seen, 
constitute such an important peculiarity in its structure, while 
the whole is surmounted at the crown by the mouth of the 
encrinite. It would naturally be expected that the general 
arrangement of the mouth, with the rays enveloping it, would 
be such, that the food, after being collected and secm'ed by the 
E 2 
