24 
Triassic Echinoderms ot Bakony. 
crinus in the sense either of Blumenbach or of Carpenter. They are early represen- 
tatives of Balanocrinus, as P. de Loriol has already suggested in part. The rest of 
the so-called Triassic Pentacrini must novv assume the name Isocrinus, as shown 
below. 
The remains of Pentacrininae from the neighbourhood of Veszprem consist 
almost entirely of columnals, but since all species of Pentacrininae hitherto described 
from the Trias are based on columnals, this circumstance does not hinder the task 
of comparison. The characters presented by the columnals of this Subfamily are so 
numerous, so variable within the Subfamily, and yet so constant within the species, 
that they furnish a secure foundation for systematic work. The Statement that they 
are constant within the species must, however, be qualifled by the remark that they 
vary witli the age of the columnal, and consequently also differ much in different 
regions of the stem. 
Previous writers on Triassic Pentacrininae have scarcely realised how many 
characters it was not merely possible but necessary for them to mention if they 
would discriminate between the species. Several of the published diagnoses include 
only such characters as are common to a large number of species, if not to a 
whole genus. Some of them also are either unintelligible, or incorrect, or both, while 
the remarkable inaccuracy or insufficiency of the published figures has led to num¬ 
erous inaccurate determinations. 
The study of the Veszprem crinoids had, therefore, to be preceded by a fresh 
and detailed study of all the type-specimens of Triassic Pentacrininae Here the 
results of that study can only be alluded to incidentally. But if certain Statements 
appear dogmatic and unexpected, my readers will kindly remember that they are 
the fruits of a ürst-hand examination. 
Terminology of the Pentacrinine Stem. 
Finer discrimination necessitates longer descriptions. But in order to reduce their length 
so far as possible, it is advisable to give a general account of the Pentacrinine stem, intro- 
ducing a concise terminology. 
That end of the stem which is nearest the cup is termed proximal, the end furth- 
est away from it being distal. The same terms are applicable to each region of the 
stem, to the cirri, and to the upper and lower surfaces of a single columnal or cirral. The 
terms «upper» and «lower» postulate a normal sessile position, with the crown directed 
away from the sea-floor. But since it is highly probable that some Pentacrininae hung 
downwards from floating logs, those terms may be misleading. It is, however, advisable 
that, in figures of the stem or of portions of it, the proximal end should be uppermost. 
This has not always been attended to. 
In transverse section (text-fig. 1), a columnal may 4 be (a) circular; or ( b ) sub¬ 
circular, i. e. depressed radially so as to approach a pentagon, but the sides and angles 
still all convex; or (c) pentagona 1, i. e. with live straight sides, meeting at five inter¬ 
radial angles ; or (d) subpentagonal, i. e. a pentagon with rounded angles ; or (e) s t e 1- 
late, i. e. when the interradial angles are less than 72°, so that the sides containing them 
meet radially to form five re-entrant angles ; or (f) s u b s t e 11 a t e, i. e. when the inter¬ 
radial angles" are rounded, but the re-entrant angles remain bounded by straight sides ; or ( g) 
