129 
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE NEW SPECIES 
Genus, melocbinus 
Melocrinidae, with four basals, and the rays produced into two main 
uniserial rami, usually fused by their inner margins in Devonian species. 
The most striking peculiarity of the three new species of this genus 
is the tendency to an unsymmetrical growth of the calyx — a character 
hitherto observed only in species of a single horizon and area in Europe. 
Usually throughout the entire order Camerata, to which this genus belongs, 
the calyx has a certain equal balance among the five rays of which it is 
composed, and is poised squarely upright upon the column, in line with 
its vertical axis; exceptional specimens in which this is not so are merely 
sporadic variations due to accidental enlargement or diminution of some 
plates. It is constructed with a definite radial symmetry, modified, 
however, in many forms by a bilateral symmetry caused by the interposition 
of anal plates at one side. 
In the species before us, the equal poise of the calyx so typical of the 
Camerata crinoids has been to a greater or less extent lost — not merely 
in abnormal individuals, but apparently as a definite specific character. 
In the leading species — M. kindlei — the material is sufficiently abundant 
to test this thoroughly. There are 17 specimens, and in these the deviation 
of the calyx from the stem axis ranges from 5 to 15 degrees. Though 
most conspicuous in the larger specimens, the actual measured obliquity 
is fully as great in smaller ones. This disturbance of balance is accom- 
panied by an unequal growth of the basal and radial plates on opposite 
sides of the calyx. In some specimens the basals in the longer side are 
almost twice as high as those upon the shorter side, and taking the total 
length of sides from the column facet to the apex of the auxiliary primibrach, 
there is an average difference in length between opposite side's of about 
4 to 5. 
In the more rotund species, M. mackenzie, from the same locality, 
the obliquity is about the same, whereas in M . whittakeri, from the Trout 
River locality, the deflexion of the calyx is less in degree, but nevertheless 
is plainly discernible in the specimens. 
It is to be observed that the specimens of M. borealis , from the lower 
Hay River beds, exhibit a similar, though less marked, tendency to 
asymmetry of the calyx, a fact that accords well with their Upper Devonian 
position, correlated with the Belgian fauna, as the relations of the two 
are now brought out. 
If, now, comparison be made with the species described in 1883 by 
Fraipont 1 upon collections made by Professor Dewalque from the lower, 
or Frasnian, member of the Upper Devonian, near Senzielle, Belgium, 
it will be seen that a similar asymmetry, marked by more or less obliquity 
of the calyx to the stem axis, prevails quite generally among them. This 
is well shown by M. konincki , PI. 4, figs. 6, 8; and by PI. 1, figs. 1, 2; and 
PI. 4, figs. 1, 2; figured by Fraipont as M. hieroglyphicm Goldfuss, but 
subsequently referred by von Koenen 2 to a new species, M. dewalquei von 
1 Annalea de la Soc. g6ol. de la Belgique, t. X, pp. 45-88; planches 2, 3, 4, 5. 
* Neues. Jahrb. £. Mm,, 1886, Bd. 1, p. 105, PI. 2, fig. 4. 
