IV. 



The objects of our Committee and of the workers at our 

 Biological Station have hitherto been chiefly faunistic and 

 speciographic. The work must necessarily be so at first 

 when opening up a new district. Some of our workers 

 have published papers on morphological points, or on 

 embryology and observations on life-histories and habits ; 

 but the majority of the papers in our volumes on the 

 "Fauna and Flora of Liverpool Bay" have been, as was 

 intended from the first, occupied with the names and 

 characteristics and distribution of the many different kinds 

 of marine plants and animals in our district. And this 

 faunistic work will still go on. It is far from finished, and 

 the Committee hope in the future to add greatly to the 

 records of the Fauna and Flora. But the papers in the 

 present series are quite distinct from these previous 

 publications in name, in treatment, and in purpose. They 

 will be called the "L.M.B.C. Memoirs," each will treat 

 of one type, and they will be issued separately as they are 

 ready, and will be obtainable Memoir by Memoir as they 

 appear, or later bound up in convenient volumes. It is 

 hoped that such a series of special studies, written by 

 those who are thoroughly familiar with the forms of which 

 they treat, will be found of value by students of Biology 

 in our laboratories and in Marine Stations, and will be 

 welcomed by many others working privately at Marine 

 Natural History. 



It is proposed that the forms selected should, as far as 

 possible, be common L.M.B.C. (Irish Sea) animals and 

 plants, of which no adequate account ah-eady exists in any 

 text-book. Probably most of the specialists who have 

 taken part in the L.M.B.C. work in the past, will prepare 

 accounts of one or moi-e representatives of their groups. 

 The following have already promised their services, and 

 in some cases the Memoir is already far advanced. The 



