NEW SPECIES OF ENCRINITE AND HYPANTHOCRINITE. 29 
The most important and beautiful discovery has however yet 
to be mentioned. The society's museum has^ ever since its com- 
mencementj contained the body of an encrinite of a remarkably 
globular form^ the plates of which approach very much to the 
character of the cyathocrinites rugosus of Miller ; but although 
several specimens of this peculiar encrinite were known^ showing 
the body, none had been found which gave any idea of the cha- 
racter of the column, or of the rays. As these specimens were 
evidently portions of a new species, they were looked upon as 
valuable, because they added yet another to the great variety of 
the crinoidea which our Silurian rocks contain; but no idea 
could be formed of their real importance, nor was there anything 
to lead to the supposition that they belonged to an entirely new 
form, possessing peculiarities distinguishing it from all previously 
known species. The discovery of a specimen perfect, as far as 
regards the body and upper portion of this encrinite, has, how- 
ever, now disclosed this important fact, while it has added not 
merely a new fonn to the almost infinite variety with which 
we were before acquainted, but has presented us with one which 
may perhaps be said to surpass all others in the beauty of its 
shape and the extreme delicacy of its structm'e. To the naked 
eye, the rays which proceed from the upper portion of the body 
appear to form a beautiful kind of coral net-work, but the micros- 
cope enables the observer to detect, in the threads which appa- 
rently run across the specimen, small tubercles on each side of 
the branches of the ray, so regularly placed, at equal distances^ 
as to correspond on a perfect line with one another, though most 
probably, really divided, and each pair of tubercles is attached 
to a separate joint of the ray. Some idea may be formed of the 
minute subdivisions of the beautiful structure composing the 
upper portion of this encrinite, when it is stated that there are 
about seventy-three joints to each branch of the ray, twenty-five 
branches to each ray, and five separate rays ; and that thus, in 
this single specimen, there are upwards of 10,000 joints, Nei- 
