EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The Liverpool Marine Biolog-y Committee was constituted 

 in 1885, with the object of investigating the Fauna and 

 Flora of the Irish Sea. 



The dredging, trawling, and other collecting expeditions 

 organised hy the Committee have been carried on inter- 

 mittently since that time, and a considerable amount 

 of material, both published and unpublished, has been 

 accumulated. Fifteen Annual Reports of the Committee 

 and five volumes dealing with the " Fauna and Flora " 

 have been issued. At an earh^ stage of the investigations 

 it became evident that a Biological Station or Laboratory 

 on the sea-shore nearer the usual collecting grounds than 

 Liverpool would be a material assistance in the work. 

 Consequently the Committee, in 1887, established the 

 Puffin Island Biological Station on the North Coast of 

 Anglesey, and later on, in 1892, moved to the more 

 commodious and convenient Station at Port Erin in the 

 centre of the rich collecting grounds of the south end of 

 the Isle of Man. A new and larger Biological Station and 

 Fish Hatchery, on a more convenient site is now being 

 erected, and will, it is expected, be open for work in May, 

 1902. 



In these fifteen years' experience of a Biological Station 

 (five years at Puffin Island and ten at Port Erin), 

 where College students and young amateurs form a large 

 proportion of the workers, the want has been frequently 

 felt of a series of detailed descriptions of the structure 

 of certain common typical animals and plants, chosen 

 as representatives of their groups, and dealt with by 

 specialists. The same want has probably been felt in other 

 similar institutions and in many College laboratories. 



