148 



MEDITERRANEAN PROVINCE. 



not been observed beyond the Mediterranean ; the 

 genus Mollea is also represented there. 



Cellepora, of which C. coccinea is a British and 

 northern representative, becomes amazingly abun- 

 dant, numerically and specifically, in the Mediter- 

 ranean seas. Of this genus, there are some eigh- 

 teen species, most of which were discriminated by 

 Delle Chiaje ; some of them have been recognised in 

 the Atlantic Lusitanian zone. Celleporce are even 

 more varied in the Bed Sea, to which as many as 

 twenty-five distinct species have been referred — 

 these have, in some cases, Indian Ocean relations •> 

 the species of the two seas are essentially distinct. 



Perina and its allied genera has several Medi- 

 terranean species. 



The researches of M tiller and Troschell, those of 

 * Ed. Forbes, both in the Celtic province and in 



the iEgean, together with the work of Grube on 

 the distribution of the Adriatic and Mediterranean 

 Echinoderms, have been the means of advancing 

 our knowledge of this great order beyond that of 

 some other portions of the fauna of this sea. 

 From these sources the Adriatic Crinoids, Ophiu- 

 rids and Asteriads may be estimated at about 

 twenty-eight ; the Holothuriads at seventeen. Sars, 

 who has recently described the Neapolitan Echino- 

 derms, finds, of the three first of these orders, as 

 many as forty-five, of the Holothuriads thirteen, 

 species. 



