EDITOKIAL NOTES. 



This volume contains Parts XXXL, XXXII., and XXXIII. of the 



Zoological Series of Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition. 



Part XXXI. — The Report on the Calcarea, by Dr. N. Polejaeff, was 

 published at the end of last year as Part XXIV. of the Zoological Series of 

 Rej)orts, and the present Report on the Keratosa is by the same author, and 

 will be welcomed by all Spongiologists. 



The Manuscript was received on 16th April 1884. 



Part XXXII. — The Stalked Crinoids, both on account of their rarity and 

 their palasontological relations, are perhaps the most interesting and remarkable 

 of deep-sea animals, and have been in a special manner associated with the 

 Challenger Expedition. 



The joint work of the late Sir C. Wyville Thomson and Dr. W. B. 

 Carpenter, C.B., first on Comatula and afterwards on Pentacrmiis, together with 

 the discovery by Professor G. 0. Sars of Rhizocrinus off the Lofoten Islands in 

 1864, led directly to the expeditions of the "Lightning" and "Porcupine" 

 in 1868 and the following years, and was thus indirectly concerned in the 

 despatch of the Challenger Expedition in 1872. Sir Wyville Thomson 

 himself proposed to draw up the Report on this group of animals, to which he 

 had devoted much attention during the cruise. The circumstances which 

 led to Dr. P. Herbert Carpenter undertaking the preparation of the Report 

 after Sir Wyville Thomson's death in 1882 are referred to in detail in the 

 Preface to the Report. 



