440 BODY, ARMS, AND FINGERS. 
JBody, Arms, and Fingers, 
The body of the Pentacrinite, between the 
summit of the column and the base of the arms, 
is small, and composed of the pelvis, and the 
costal, and scapular plates, (see PL 51. PL 52. 
Fig. 1. 3. and PL 53. Fig. 2. 6. E. F. H.). The 
arms and fingers are long and spreading, and 
have numerous joints, or tentacula ; each joint 
is armed at its margin with a small tubercle, or 
hook, (PL 53. Fig. 17.), the form of which varies 
in every joint, to act as an organ of prehension ; 
these arms and fingers, vrhen expanded, must 
have formed a net of greater capacity than that 
of the Encrinites.* 
We have seen that Parkinson calculates the 
number of bones in the Lily Encrinite to exceed 
twenty-six thousand. The number of bones in 
the fingers and tentacula of the Briarean Pen- 
tacrinite amounts at least to a hundred thousand ; 
if to these we add fifty thousand more for the 
ossicula of the side arms, which is much too 
* The place of the Pentacrinites in the family Echinoderms, 
would lead us to expect to find minute pores on the internal sur- 
face of the fingers, analogous to those of the more obvious am- 
bulacra of Echini ; they were probably observed by Guettard, 
who speaks of orifices at the terminating points of the fingers 
and tentacula. 
Lamarck also, describing his generic character of Encrinus, 
says : " The branches of the Umbel are furnished with Polypes, 
or suckers, disposed in rows." 
