V 



PREFACE. 



When, seventeen years ago, the first of these 

 Studies was published in the Geological Magazine, 

 the material for most of the succeeding Studies had 

 already been accumulated and, to a large extent, 

 described and figured. It was therefore no idle 

 fancy that led me to anticipate the early publication 

 of the series and caused me on that account to 

 postpone the reprinting and distribution of separate 

 copies. Unfortunately those plans were upset by 

 an unexpected increase of official duties and other 

 pressing work, so that plates already prepared in 

 1900 did not see the light till 19 14. The Studies 

 already published might indeed have been distributed 

 in separate form had not all their plates been lost 

 while in store and had not the cost of a fresh 

 production appeared disproportionate. Lapse of 

 time, however, has convinced me that those Studies 

 ought to be reprinted. So many who in recent years 

 have written about Edrioasteroidea seem to have 

 written in ignorance of the facts therein made known, 

 and it cannot be denied that those facts ar eof 

 extreme interest and importance for the morphology 

 and classification of the Echinoderma. It will be 

 recognised that it is not for me to charge my 

 colleagues with ignoring my own writings when 

 I have omitted the usual courtesy of supplying them 

 with copies. However much one is tempted to 

 censure avoidable ignorance, one must realise the 

 difficulties which the present unorganised condition 

 of the scientific world places in the way of those 

 who wish to read no less than of those who wish to 

 be read. 



