CLASS I. ECHINODEKMATA: ORDER 4. CRINOIDEA. 629 
ENCRINID^. 
nishcd with witli at least two bundles of muscular fiber — one for its contraction, the other for its 
extension — we have three hundred thousand such in the body of a sino'le Pentacrinus. an 
amount of muscular apparatus 
liir exceeding any thing that has 
been found elsewhere in the 
Animal Creation." 
Dr. Bucldand describes those 
animals as destined to find their 
nourishment by spreading their 
nets and moving these bodies 
to a limited degree, while they 
were yet fixed to the bottom 
of the sea. After noting the 
fact that few of these species 
now^ exist in a liviua: state, he 
states that the substance of 
vast beds of marble in Europe 
and America "is almost as 
I 
entirely made up of the petri- 
fied bones of Encrinidas as a 
corn-rick is composed of straws. 
Man applies it to construct his 
palace and adorn his sepulcher, 
but there are few who know 
and fewer still wdio appreciate 
the surprising fact that much 
of this marble is composed of 
the skeletons of millions of or- 
ganized beings once endowed 
with life." 
More than thirty species of 
Crinoidea that have tlras be- 
come extinct, have been iden- 
tified. The Medusa's Head 
Pentacrinus, P. Caput -Me- 
diiscB, is one of the existing 
species, and a few specimens 
of it have been found near the 
islands of Barbadoes and Mar- 
tinique. This may be consid- 
ered as one of the greatest 
wonders of nature, it being a 
real animal, having blood, and 
feeding upon other marine ani- 
mals, yet having the form of a 
plant, and living like a plant, 
fixed to a rock in the deep sea. 
It is supposed by naturalists 
that it stands erect, yet yields to the fury of storms which agitate the waves, by bending down 
and adhering for additional security, with its side arms, to such fixed objects as may be within 
reach ; or sometimes it may fold its arms close to the column, so as to off"er the least possible 
surface to the tumultuous element. (See engraving p. 630.) 
THE HOST FKATHKK-STAE — COMATULA ROSACEA. 
