Family. 6 
re " ` 
CRINOIDEA.. | | 
LILY-SHAPED ANIMALS. 

Character of the Family. ۱ 
AN animal with a round, oval, or angular column, composed of numerous 
articulating Joints, supporting at its summit a series of plates or joints forming 
a cup-like body containing the viscera, from whose upper rim proceed five | 
articulated arms, dividing into tentaculated fingers, more or less numerous, | | 
surrounding the aperture of the mouth, situated in the centre of a plated : 
integument, which extends over the abdominal cavity, and is crab q of 
being 06 into a conic or proboscal shape. 

Some species of these animals ascertained to be permanently attached to 
extraneous bodies, whilst others appear to have been capable of locomotion. 
Derivation of the Name of the Family. 
/ I have derived the name of this family from the Greek TA zaA KPINOEIAEA 
the lily-shaped animals, and have used this word to form with anotlrer distin- 
suishing term prefixed, the name of the genera. 
Progress of the Study of the Animals now arranged in this Family. 
The cclumns and columnar joints of the Crinoidea, by their frequent occur- 
renceand remarkablefigure, have attracted the attention of naturalists at an early 
age. The round columns, and their depressed single perforated joints, marked : 
upon their upper and lower surfaces with radiating 801 have acquired names ! | ۱ 


