INTRODUCTION 3 



Austins in the Free Public Museum at Liverpool, containing the types of the 

 species described in their monograph of 1843 to : 849, was placed at my dis- 

 posal. I also had the privilege of examining an extremely important collection 

 made in recent years from the Upper Carboniferous by Mr. James Wright, 

 Jr., of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, who with the greatest liberality sent me for study 

 at my leisure his entire series of specimens of Flexibilia. From certain other 

 British collections which I was unable to visit I have been supplied with photo- 

 graphs, casts, and in some cases detailed drawings of all the important speci- 

 mens pertaining to this group ; chief among them were those of the Sedgwick 

 Museum at Cambridge, containing the types of various species proposed by 

 Salter with catalogue names, and the Museum of the Geological Survey of 

 Ireland, at Dublin, containing the important types of M'Coy's species. 



I also examined the types of De Koninck and Le Hon in the.Musee Royal 

 d'Ffistoire Naturelle in Brussels, in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, 

 and was furnished with casts of certain specimens of special importance; also 

 the crinoids in the Museum of the University of Bonn, together with the fine 

 private collection of Dr. B. Stiirtz, both rich in Middle Devonian species from 

 the Eifel, and Lower Devonian species from the slates of Bundenbach and 

 Gemiinden. In addition to these I have had the benefit of a fine series of Eifel 

 crinoids obtained by myself from local collectors at Gerolstein, and also at 

 Prum by purchase of the collection of Lehrer Kroeffges, who was one of 

 Schultze's collectors prior to 1865. More important than all these, however, in 

 connection with the Eifel crinoid fauna, is the collection of Schultze now at 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College, containing most 

 of the types of his classic monograph. 



To my very great regret I was unable, owing to pressure of business mat- 

 ters during my sojourns in Europe, to visit the great Swedish collections at 

 Stockholm from the Silurian of Gotland, containing the types of Angelin's 

 Iconographia and of Hisinger's earlier descriptions. But through the good 

 offices of my lamented friend, Dr. Gustav Lindstrom, I was enabled to secure 

 the services of Mr. Georg Liljevall, the accomplished artist and preparator of 

 the Riks Museum, who has through a series of years made for me a careful 

 study of all the Flexibilia material in the Stockholm collections, and has fur- 

 nished me detailed drawings, not only of all the types of Angelin and Hisinger, 

 but of every other specimen belonging to this group, existing in their time or 

 subsequently acquired, which might throw any light upon the Gotland fauna. 

 Mr. Liljevall is not only an artist of superb technique, but a keen and accurate 

 observer who knows the crinoids of Gotland most thoroughly; and I feel cer- 

 tain that by means of his patient and conscientious studies of this magnificent 

 material I am enabled to give a far more accurate account of it than I could 

 have myself prepared during any such brief visit as I might have made. 



