C 357 ] 
LVI. An Account of an Encrinus , or Star- 
fiflh with a jointed Stem , taken on the Coafi 
of Barbacloes, which explains to what kind of 
Animal thofe Eoffils belong, called Starftcnes , 
Af erics, and Afropodia, which have been 
found in many Parts of this Kingdom : In 
a Letter t o Mr. Emanuel Mendes da Cofta, 
F. R. S. By John Ellis, Ef r> F R. S. 
S I R, 
Read Dec. i 7r j Need not inform you, that the writers 
JL on natural hiftory have been much at 
a Jofs to difcover to what kind of animals thofe petri- 
fied bodies have properly belonged, which are known 
to us by the name of trochites, entrochi, carpophyl- 
loides, encrini, afterias, &c. and therefore, it is with 
the greater pleafure I lay before the Royal Society a 
recent animal of the rareft of this clafs. 
Mr. Mafon of Barbadoes, remarkable for his cu- 
rious experiments in magnetifm, by defire of my 
friend Dr. Alexander Bruce, of that ifland, in the 
month of May 1760, brought me this rare lithophy- 
ton, as the dc<ftor called it ; but I being in the country, 
it fell into the hands of my worthy friend Dr. John 
Fothergil, who was fo kind to fend it me, to defcribe, 
and to oblige the Royal Society with a fight of it. 
. Dr • Bruce informs me, that they are the inha- 
bitants of thofe feas, and that he is in hopes of fend- 
ing me over a more perfect fpecimen. 
Mr. 
