most prominent. Now scarcely a dozen kinds of these beautiful animals live in the seas of our globe, and individuals of these kinds are comparatively rarely to be met with: formerly they were among the most numerous of the ocean's inhabitants-so numerous that the remains of their skeletons constitute great tracts of the dry land as it now appears. For miles and miles we may walk over the stony fragments of the crinoidea-fragments which were once built up in animated forms, encased in living flesh, and obeying the will of creatures among the loveliest of the inhabitants of the ocean. Even in their present disjointed and petrified state, they excite the admiration, not only of the naturalist, but of the common gazer; and the name of stone-lily, popularly applied to them, indicates a popular appreciation of their beauty. To the philosopher they have long been subjects of contemplation as well as of admiration. In him they raise up a vision of an early world—a world the potentates of which were not men, but animals-of seas on whose tranquil surfaces myriads of convoluted nautili sported, and in whose depths millions of lily-stars waved wilfully on their slender stems. Now the lily-stars and the nautili arc almost gone; a few lovely stragglers of those once-abounding tribes remain to evidence the wondrous forms and structures of their comrades. Other beings, not less wonderful, and scarcely less graceful, have replaced them; while the seas in which they flourished have become lands, whereon man, in his columned cathedrals and mazy palaces, emulates the beauty and symmetry of their fluted stems and chambered shells."

The history of those species, which, though once the chief inhabitants of this globe, are now only known to us through the investigations of the geologist, can hardly fail to meet with attention. The ichthyosauri and pleseosaurí, the megatheria and the deinotheria, which strike us by their vast size and enormous powers, have been made known to the popular reader by Dr. Buckland, in his Bridgewater Treatise; but the smaller crinoides, which are even still more marvellous, by reason of their wonderfully complicated structure, are known only to professed zoologists. We would willingly make large extracts from Mr. Forbes's book, but we shall content ourselves with the history of one peculiar species:

"After what I have said of the former importance of the crinoid starfishes in the economy of the world, it need scarcely be remarked that the history of the only crinoid animal at present inhabiting our seas, at one time so full of those beautiful and wonderful creatures, must present many points of great interest, not to the zoologist only, but also to the geologist. And in truth the history of the feather-star -for so, on account of its plumose appearance, I would designate the starfish called by naturalists comatula-is one of the little romances in which natural history abounds, one of those narrations which, while believing, we almost doubt, and yet, while doubting, must believe. Nevertheless, there is nothing inconsistent with the creature's position

in the animal kingdom in the account of the development of the comatula; but, before speaking of that subject, it is best we describe the animal in all its parts."

The ordinary starfish is well known; the species here mentioned consists of a disc or base, convex on one side, and concave on the other. The concave side presents ten radiating ribs, four of which are more depressed than the others. From the convex side proceed from twenty to thirty (according to the age of the animal) calcareous filaments, some having fourteen joints and a curved claw, others eighteen joints and an almost straight claw. The whole of the animal is of a deep rose colour, dotted with brown, and fringed with cirrhi. The arms have a very feathery appearance, from which the animal derives its name.

"And now commences the strange chapter in the history of the feather-star-a history which has excited much discussion in the world of science. In the year 1823, Mr. J. V. Thompson discovered, in the Cove of Cork, a singular little pedunculated crinoid animal, which he named Pentacrinus Europeus. This creature was taken attached to the stems of zoophytes of different orders. It measured about threefourths of an inch in height, and resembled a minute comatula mounted on the stalk of a pentacrinus."

After some further examination, Mr. Thompson maintained the proposition that his pentacrinus europæus was only the young of the comatula; that the feather-star commenced life as an encrinite, and thus, as it were, changed its nature from a pseudopolype to a starfish. He there compares the youngest comatula he had met with, with the oldest pentacrinus, and shows the gradual progress of form during the development of the latter towards the adult state of the former, the development of the arms, the gradual appearance of the pinnæ, and the original absence of dorsal filaments, and the increase in their number as the animals of each kind grow older.

"Although (says Mr. Forbes) the change of the pentacrinus into the feather-star has never been seen, yet the arguments of the discoverer of the former appear to me sufficiently to warrant the union of these two animals as one species in different states. I feel more confident in expressing this belief since I know that the identity of the comatula and pentacrinus is held by Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, and Mr. Ball, of Dublin, two gentlemen who have examined the latter animal under the most favourable circumstances, and who exhibited the creature alive to the members of the Natural History Section of the British Association during its session in Dublin."

The habits of these creatures have been made the subject of the most close study, and many facts have been elicited of great

moment to the naturalist generally. We shall proceed with our feather-star:

"The adult comatula frequents both deep and shallow water. In deep water we find them full grown; and when dredging in such a situation I have never seen a small one. In the region of Laminariæ they abound in several localities, and there are found of all sizes, in company with the stalked form, or phytocrinus. Probably they frequent those forests of sea-weeds for breeding purposes at certain seasons, and retire to the deep sea at other times.'

Lest our readers should marvel that in their visits to the sea they never met with these beautiful animals, we must tell them first that it is not very common, and next that it is very difficult to catch. It is said, that if a rat be seized by the tail when he has half escaped down a hole, he will leave the skin of his tail in the fingers of his captor, and do as well as he can without it. The feather-star takes a still more decided mode to prevent being made "a specimen :".

"A feather-star is a very different animal, when preserved in spirits with its expanded fins, from what it appears when dried. The range of the rosy feather-star extends from Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean.

"When a freshly caught feather-star is plunged into cold fresh water, it dies in a state of contraction; but if not so killed, or else if not killed in spirits, it breaks itself into pieces like an ophiura. When dying, either in fresh water or in spirits, it gives out a most beautiful purple colour, which tinges the liquid in which it is killed. This colour is retained a long time in spirits. The fact was long ago noted by Bartholinus, who observed it at Naples, and whose observations on it will be found in a note to Fabius Columna."

Vermin have vermin that prey upon them; nor are the starfishes exempt :

"Mr. J. V. Thompson has the following note on a curious animal, which is parasitic on the feather-star-Connected with the natural history of the comatula is that of a nondescript parasite, which appears to be a complete zoological puzzle, as it is not possible to determine from its figure and structure to what class it ought to be referred, its natural size not exceeding that of the breadth of the ossicula of the arms of the comatula: it resembles a flat scale, and runs about with considerable velocity on the arms of the animal, and occasionally protrudes a flexible tubular proboscis, ending in a papillary margin. The disk or body is surrounded by eighteen or twenty retractile and moveable tentaculi, and beneath is furnished with five pairs of short members, each ending in a hooked claw.-Query, is it a perfect animal, or a larva? and does it belong to the crustacea, the annelides, or what?""

VOL. X.-R

Thus they have the additional mortification of being infested with nameless insects. Some species of this genus have, it appears, the same property of reproducing their arms that we have seen exhibited by worms :

"The brittle-stars are much more active animals than the ophiuræ ; they seldom remain quiet for a moment, but are continually twisting about their arms, and if laid hold of they break up into little pieces with wonderful facility, each fragment of an arm also breaking itself up into smaller pieces; and frequently when we seize one of these creatures, in a moment we find nothing but the disk remaining. They can reproduce their arms in the same manner as the asteriado.”

The starfishes are among the most remarkable inhabitants of the sea. Their singular and varied forms, their strange habits, and their anatomical structure are equally attractive. Their rank in the animal kingdom is most important: and, as representatives of the great class of Echinodermata, they are alike interesting to the physiologist and the naturalist. Nevertheless, so little is known about them, that no work has been devoted to their history since the time of Link, who wrote in 1733.

The study of the crinoida-connecting the starfishes with the polypes; of the sea-urchins-linking them with the holothuriadæ; and of the various kinds of holothuria, presents us with subjects of equal novelty and interest; and, combined with the starfishes, completes the history of the Echinodermata of our seas.

Such has Mr. Forbes given us, and it is a history well qualified to fill up the blank that has hitherto existed in the fauna of Britain.

Mariolatry; or, Facts and Evidences, demonstrating the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Church of Rome, derived from the Testimonies of her reputed Saints and Doctors, from her Breviary, and other authorized Romish Formularies of Devotion, confirmed by the Attestations of Travellers. pp. 120. 18mo. London: Painter. 1841.

THIS little volume contains the substance of the two articles on the Mary Worship of the Church of Rome, which appeared in the last volume of our journal (pp. 166 and 419). They are now respectfully submitted to the public in their present form, in consequence of applications made to the publisher, that the documentary information which they contain, respecting the idolatrous worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Church of Rome, might be beneficially circulated as a separate publication. In preparing it a second time for the press, besides making several corrections, the author has availed himself of the oppor

tunity thus presented to him, of introducing various important additional evidences; which, together with those previously given, concur to demonstrate, beyond the possibility of denial or disproof, the practice of Mary Worship by the Church of Rome.

While this little work was passing through the press, upwards of thirty books of devotions addressed to the Virgin Mary (printed at and recently brought from Rome, Naples, Modena, and other places in Italy, and Switzerland), were communicated to the author. From seventeen of these, he has selected the most important passages, which are given in Italian, French, and English, in the Appendix.

As we gave various specimens of Mariolatry, especially at Rome, in the articles already referred to, we now subjoin an extract, which will show in what manner the Virgin Mary is worshipped at Naples :

666

:

Preghiera alla Madre di Dio della Misericordia.' That is, 'A Prayer to the Mother of the God of Mercy,' two copies of which, in 1840, were framed and suspended at an altar in the Church of San Lorenzo, in that city. It is also gratuitously distributed.

"O most holy Mother of God, the joy of all the saints, the comfort of all the wretched, the refuge of all the forsaken, I beseech you, by that ineffable sweetness, experienced by you when God vouchsafed to become man in your most chaste womb, that you yourself would take my spiritual and temporal interests into your hands; and that you may engage your dear Son in my behalf, and in order to render HIM propitious to ME, show him, O tender and sweetest Mother, the milk with which you did nourish him in his infancy; show him your most pure heart, wholly burnt up again with the sacred fire of his intense love.

"Ah! most powerful Advocate, cast a look of compassion upon your unworthy servant; and, above all, assist me in the hour of my death ..... Grant that, being united to you, and to Jesus Christ your Son, by the chains of the tenderest love, I may experience the truth of that beautiful sentence, which forms my hope, as it does my glory, that a true servant, and devotee, and imitator of Mary, SHALL NOT eternally perish. Amen."

This little volume is handsomely printed; and we do hope that the mass of important documentary evidence which it contains will secure for it an attentive perusal, and an extensive circulation. In its present form, it is the fullest exposure of the Mary Worship of the Romish Church which has ever been submitted to the British public.