PREFACE. V 



Great Barrier Reef. Several quite unexpected forms occur among those found 

 by Mr. Bassett-Smith, R.N., especially valuable because of the detailed informa- 

 tion which accoiyipanies them. The same applies also to the specimens presented 

 to the Museum by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, the bulk of whose collection belongs 

 to the Cambridge University Museum, and has been kindly lent for the purposes 

 of this work. 



This volume has had the advantage of having been carefully edited through- 

 out by Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell, the member of the permanent staff who has charge of 

 the collection of recent corals. Mr. Bell has rendered Mr. Bernard invaluable 

 assistance during the whole course of his studies for this volume, havinsr shown 

 the keenest interest in every detail of the work. 



The parts dealing with the fossil forms have been carefully revised by 

 Mr. R. Bullen Newton who, in the Geological Department, has official charge of 

 the fossil corals. He has spared no pains in rectifying the horizons according to 

 the latest available sources of infoi-matiou. 



An improvement has been made upon the methods of illustration adopted in 

 previous volumes of this Catalogue. Formerly the specimens were photographed, 

 and magnified lithographic drawings were made of the finer structural details. In 

 this volume, magnified photographs of these latter were taken by a photographic 

 expert, Mr. T. Murray, sent by Messrs. Morgan and Kidd, who, as in the case of 

 the former volumes, prepared the collotype reproductions of the same ; the growth- 

 forms are given in lithographic drawings executed by the skilful pencil of Mr. 

 A. T. Hollick. The motive of the change was to apportion to each method of 

 illustration that part of the work to which it is best adapted. It is obvious that, 

 excellent as Mr. Percy Highley's drawings for Vol. III. are, the bewildering details 

 of the reticular skeletons of GonioporcB can only be truly and expeditiously 

 reproduced liy photography. 



E. RAY LANKESTER. 



\Oth March, 1903. 



