222 BULLETIN 82, U>nTED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME 1 



usrti tliis nictliocl of collecting, all adding new localities to the known range and the first 

 throe also copious notes on its habits. Mr. C. W. Peach (,1864) gave instances of its 

 occurrence in northeastern Scotland, Dr. John Grieve (1808) published an account of 

 its occurrence in the Clyde, and Mcintosh found it at North Uist, in the outer Hebrides 

 (1SG6). On the French coast it was reported from Charente-Inferieure by Beltramieux 

 (1864) and from Roscoff by Prof. H. de Lacaze-Duthiers (1869). 



The decade beginning in 1868 saw the extension into deep water, with the assistance 

 of ocean-going steamers, of the dredging operations begun by Edward Forbes in 1831 

 and by Michael Sars in 1835. Due mainly to the energy and enthusiasm of Sir Wyville 

 Thomson and Dr. W. B. Carpenter, the British government, through the influence of 

 the Royal Society, was induced to place at the disposal of a committee of scientific 

 experts, for the purpose of exploring the deep sea, first the small surveying steamer 

 Lightninfj in 1868, and in 1869 and 1870 the more efficient steamer Porcupine. These 

 expeditions did little, however, to add to the knowledge of this particular species; such 

 information as was gained was published bj^ Wyville Thomson (1872) and, in more 

 detail, by P. H. Carpenter (1884, 1888). 



During this decade interest in the anatomy, skeletal structures, and embryology 

 of tliis form and of the closely related A. mediterranea, which for the most part was 

 considered identical with it, became general, resulting in a considerable number of 

 original contributions and some rather acrimonious controversies. The writings of 

 W. B. Carpenter (1870, 1875, 1876), Baudclot (1872), Perrier (1873), Greeff (1876), 

 Ludwig (1876, 1877, 1878, 1879), Gotte (1876), and no less than five articles by W. B. 

 Carpenter's son, P. H. Carpenter (1876, 1877, 1878, 1879), served to throw much light 

 on hitherto obscure points. 



For the region about Ph-mouth the only records were Gray's mention of a specimen 

 in the British Museum and the notices of Allman and Gosse, both of whom looked upon 

 the rosy feather star as rare in that locality. This view again being expressed by Mr. 

 W. R. Hughes (1873), a flood of evidence tending to show that it was in reahty abundant, 

 at least locally, was immediately unloosed (Lang, 1876; Hughes, 1876; Stebbing, 1877; 

 Hunt, 1877; Mason, 1877). Mason (1877) also recorded it again from the Shetlands, 

 and Mcintosh reported it as absent from St. Andrews in eastern Scotland. 



On the French coast its occurrence was still further detailed for the region about 

 Roscoff by Lacaze-Duthiers (1870, 1872), E. Grube (1872), and Perrier (1873), and for 

 southwestern France by Fischer (1870). W. B. Carpenter in 1866 had explained in 

 great detail the nomenclatorial history of this species, including that of the Mediter- 

 ranean fonn which he considered identical with it. Some of the points involved were 

 further discussed by his son (1877), Pascoe (1877) and Stebbing (1877), while in 1879 

 P. H. Carpenter treated exhaustively the nomenclature of all the comatulids. The 

 relationships of this species were also explained by him (1877, 1879). 



The curious myzostome parasites, alwaj-s associated with crinoids and almost 

 exclusively confined to them, first noticed by J. V. Thompson in 1835, first described by 

 Leuckart, and independently named by J. Miiller, formed the subject of a comprehensive 

 monograph by Ludwig von Graft' in 1877. 



In the lS80's and 1890's the outstanding feature of biological investigation was 

 the concentration of work at definite localities determined by the estabhshment of 

 manne biological stations offering superior facilities for intensive distributional 

 studies and for minute investigations. These biological stations were the natiu-al out- 



