EXTENT OF CRINOIDEANS. 429 
From the details I have thus selected from 
the best authorities, with a view to illustrate the 
most important parts that enter into the organi- 
zation of the family of Encrinites, it is obvious 
that similar investigations might be carried to 
the manner in which these roots are found attached to the upper 
surface of the great oolite at Bradford near Bath. When living, 
their roots were confluent, and formed a thin pavement at this place 
over the bottom of the sea, from which their stems and branches 
rose into a thick submarine forest, composed of these beautiful 
Zoophytes. The stems and bodies are occasionally found united, 
as in their living state; the arms and fingers have almost always 
been separated, but their dislocated fragments still remain, cover- 
ing the pavement of roots that overspreads the surface of the 
subjacent Oolitic limestone rock. 
This bed of beautiful remains has been buried by a thick stra- 
tum of clay. Fig. 3 represents the exterior of the body, and 
the upper columnar joints of this animal, about two-thirds of the 
natural size. Fig. 4. is a longitudinal section of the same, shew- 
ing the cavity for the viscera, and also the large open spaces for 
the reception of nourishment between the uppermost enlarged 
joints of the column. 
At fig. 5 we have the Actinocrinites 30-dactylus, from the 
carboniferous limestone near Bristol. D. represents the auxiliary 
side arms which are attached to the column of this species, and 
B. its base and fibres of attachment. Fig. 6 represents its body, 
from which the fingers are removed, shewing the pectoral plates, 
Q, and capital plates, R, which form an integument over the 
abdominal cavity of the body, and terminate in a mouth (x), 
capable of being protruded into an elongated proboscis by the 
contraction of its plated integument. Fig. 7 represents the 
body of an Encrinite in the British Museum, figured by Parkin- 
son, vol. 2, fol. 17, fig. 3, by the name of Nave Encrinite. 
The mouth of this specimen also is seen at X, and between 
the mouth and the bases of the arms, the series of plates which 
form the upper and exterior integuments of the stomach. 
