Extract
Since my last communication, a singular variety of Pentacrinus having been discovered near Lyme, of which I had the good fortune to procure a specimen, it is with pleasure I transmit drawings to the Society taken from my own specimen, as well as from some fine ones belonging to Mr. De la Beche.
Fig. 1, Plate 22, shews the branching arms, which have considerable resemblance to the species found most commonly at the same place, and called by Mr. Parkinson, the Briarean. It differs from it however in being thicker in proportion throughout.
Fig. 2 is the part from whence the arms spring, and the two out of the five processes to which they were attached, which are visible, are remarkably well preserved. This lies on the under side of the lower part of the stone, figured No. 1, and is in all probability the identical summit of the column to which the arms of that figure were attached. The stem or vertrebal column is peculiar, from being in its lower part so nearly circular, that at first it passed for an encrinus, (see fig. 1 & 3, Plate 22) but towards the head it exhibits, as one of the drawings will shew, a decided pentagonal form, (see fig. 4, Plate 22) each division being bounded by a circular exterior, and between each division, as in the Briarean, there issue feelers, which this specimen shews must have been short, and of a form little diminishing, each occupying the groove from
- © The Geological Society 1821
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