PART 5 A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS 225 



in a most unpromising region so far as this species is concerned ; yet feather stars were 

 recorded from there by Storrow in 1913. 



In addition to and apart from the work emanating from the biological stations, 

 there were in the 1880's more numerous and more important contributions to the 

 study of the recent crinoids, including many species, both stalked and unstalked, than 

 have ever appeared in any decade before or since. This decade \vitnessed the high 

 tide in the interest in these animals, which ebbed appreciably in the 1890's, and 

 subsequently has fallen to below the level of the decades 1830-1850. 



Local dredging operations were carried on in the Moray Firth (Sim, 1886) and 

 on the coast of Ireland, both in deep (Bell, 1889) and shallow water (Macintosh, 

 1884; Haddon, and Haddon and Bell, 1886), and the species was reported from the 

 Channel Islands (Koehler, 1885), and from various localities on the Portuguese coast 

 (R. Greeff, 1882). Additional information regarding the occurrence of the pen- 

 tacrinoids at Arran (Herdman, 1884; W. B. Carpenter, 1884) and of the adults in 

 the Torbay region (Hunt, 1884) appeared. 



The systematic status, distribution, anatomy and morphology were discussed 

 by P. H. Carpenter (1880, 1881, 1883, 1888), the embryology by Balfour (1880), 

 the homologies of the apical plates by Sladen (1884), and the Myzostome parasites 

 by von Gruff (1884, 1885, 1887). 



In the 1890's many new records of occurrence appeared, for the Moray Firth 

 (W. R. Smith, 1891), the Clyde area (Parkes, 1891; Bell, 1893; Chopin, 1895; T. Scott, 

 1896), Ireland (Sladen, 1891; Bell, 1893; Paddy from Cork, 1895); Rockall (Sladen, 

 1897), Anglesey (Herdman, 1891), Wales (Parkes, 1891), Cornwall (Vallentin, 1898), 

 the region about Plymouth (P. H. Carpenter, 1890; Parkes, 1891), and the English 

 Channel (Parkes, 1891; Malard, 1892, 1893; and especially Pruvot, 1897). 



P. H. Carpenter (1891) announced his final conclusions regarding the systematic 

 status of the species and its relation to other species, and Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell (1893) 

 published a monographic account of this form in British waters, adding many new 

 records based upon material in the British Museum. Various points connected with 

 the anatomy and the comparative embryology were discussed (Cuenot, 1890, 1891, 

 1892; MacBride, 1894), and some very interesting parasites (Cuenot, 1891, 1894) 

 and commensals (Malard, 1892, 1893) were described. The zonal distribution of 

 the species about Roscoff was worked out by Pruvot (1897). 



Since 1900, the rapid multiplication of data in all branches of zoology, the great 

 improvement in microscopical technique, and the intensive cultivation of new and at- 

 tractive fields, especially the study of plankton, animal ecology, and various forms 

 of experimental zoology, have given rise to an ever increasing number of "specialists" 

 who, in contrast to the old time "naturalists," have understandably interested them- 

 selves along lines in which relatively little work had previously been done. So much 

 had already been published regarding this species, and so widely had it been adver- 

 tised in textbooks and popular writings that it was only natural that interest in it 

 should wane and attention should be attracted to other animals hitherto more or less 

 neglected or misunderstood. 



Since 1900, however, very considerable additions to the knowledge of details 

 of local distribution were made. Storrow (1913) and Meek (1924) recorded it 

 from Cullercoats, in Northumberland; Simpson (1903) discussed its occurrence about 

 Aberdeen; Macintosh (1904) spoke of it in the Clyde, for which region Chumlry 



556-62266 16 



