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No. II.— REPORT ON THE ECHINODERMA (OTHER THAN HOLOTHURIANS) 

 COLLECTED BY Mr. J. STANLEY GARDINER IN THE WESTERN 

 PARTS OE THE INDIAN OCEAN. 



By F. Jeffrey Bell, 31. A., Emeritus Professor and Felloio of King's 

 College, TJiiiversity of London. 



{Communicated by J. Stanley Gardiner, M.A., F.K.S., F.L.S.) 



(Plate 3.) 



Read 5th November, 1908. 



Some time since Mr. Stanley Gardiner forwarded to me the large collection of Echino- 

 derms made by him in the Indian Ocean ; the collection was contained in about 150 

 bottles and tubes, together with about 20 dried specimens, and the work has been 

 laborious from the number of species placed together in one bottle. 



It is now rather more than a quarter of a century since I received a collection made 

 l)y H.M.S. ' Alert' in the Western Indian Ocean ; since then considerable additions to 

 our knowledge of the fauna of Mauritius have been made by the admirable memoirs of 

 M. de Loriol, while a summary of our knowledge of the area involved is to be found in 

 the ' Echinodermen des Sansibargebietes,' prepared by Prof. Ludwig in 1899. I do not 

 propose therefore on this occasion to enter into those bibliographical details in which, 

 to my wonder, so many zoologists appear to take delight. 



Not only were the bottles and boxes numerous, but they nearly always contained 

 specimens belonging not only to different species but to different divisions of the phylum. 

 A very large number of the specimens were immature ; I have no doubt that workers in 

 some other branches of zoology have had from time to time to complain of the description 

 of species drawn up from immature specimens, but I do not think that many groups 

 have suffered so severely as have the Echinoderms. While the study of the species of 

 this group was still comparatively in its infancy, a large circumnavigating expedition 

 broiight home considerable collections, many of which were isolated forms, which upon 

 examination have proved to be immature. There is reason to believe that I have myself 

 t)een at least once a sinner in this respect, but I hope to be able henceforward to put 

 a better restraint upon myself. I am not, let it be understood, complaining of the 

 existence of immature forms in this or any other collection. When we are able to get to 

 what is, I suppose, the real business of systematic zoologists, the study of the evolution 

 of the sjDecies which we and our predecessors have established, these immature forms will 

 prove of the highest value and interest. I have now a good collection of these forms 

 from various parts, and I am looking forward to the time when they shall be put to use. 



SECOND SERIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XIII. 3 



