IV 



PREFACE. 



The first thing that will strike the reader is the change in the formula, the 

 author having completely abandoned the old methods of naming in favour of 

 geographical symbols. At my request he has added the concluding remarks on 

 p. 190, not to make clearer the explanation of his system given on pp. 3 and 31 

 of the Introduction, but to deal especially with this purely formal innovation, 

 which some, who have not gone very deeply into the subject, may think needlessly 

 drastic. It may be remembered that this is not the first time that the inadequacy 

 of the ordinary methods followed by naturalists has been pointed out in a preface 

 to a Museum Catalogue.* 



Some sixty-eight records of Gonioporce, hidden under various generic names, 

 with a bewildering repetition of some five or six specific names, were found 

 in previous writings. Wherever possible they have been rediagnosed. These, 

 with the new forms described for the first time, bring up the total number of 

 known forms to about 150, 80 per cent, of which are figured. With this greatly 

 extended series for comparison, it has been possible to make out several new types 

 of calicle structure and of growth-form, and to obtain some conception of the form 

 and structure of the primitive Gonioporan colony. The conclusions arrived at 

 have, in the main, confirmed the position assigned to the genus in the classical 

 works of Milne-Edwards and Haime. 



The special thanks of the Trustees of the British Museum are due to the 

 Directors and Assistants of other Museums for their courtesy either in lending 

 specimens, or in other ways assisting Mr. Bernard in the study of specimens under 

 their charge : to Prof. Ed. Perrier, Director of the Museum of Natural History, in 

 Paris ; to Prof. Portis, Director of the Geological Museum of the University of 

 Rome ; to Dr. Horst of the Museum of Natural History in Leyden ; to Dr. T. 

 Way land Vaughan of the United States Geological Survey; to Dr. Harmer, F.R.S., 

 and to Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner of Cambridge ; also to Dr. Charles Gravier of 

 Paris, Dr. Angelis of Rome, and Mr. S. Pace, now of the Plymouth Marine 

 Biological Laboratory. 



Of recent additions to the Museum, special mention should be made of the 

 number of new Gonioporce contained in Mr. W. Saville-Kent's collection from the 



* Catalogue of Fishes, vol. vi. (1866). 



