PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 97 
All of the specimens (four) were dry and more or less imperfect. The 
chief characters of the form, however, are so well marked as to readily 
admit of identification from the following description. 
RADICIPES,* n. g. 
Polyp-mass or ccenosare linear, elongated, rooted; round, oval, or 
ovate in cross-section. Style or axis long, slender, attenuated, and 
tapering; calcareous and brittle; four sided or obtusely quadrangular 
to nearly round in cross-section; basal end furcate, ramified radiciform. 
RADICIPES PLEUROCRISTATUS,t 0. Ss. 
Polyp-mass linear elongate attenuate, tapering; polypiferous portion 
about three-fourths to four-fifths of total length; the lowest fourth or 
fifth squarish round to round in cross-section and free from polyps: 
ovate to ovate elliptic in cross-section through center of polypiferous 
part; polyps arranged unilaterally in a single series, one above another 
along one edge or angle of the style; the sarcode of each polyp inclosing 
and sustained by numerous slender elongated spicule. 
Axis or style long, slender, hard and bony, tapering simply to a fine 
tip; opposite or basal end forked, varicate and root-shaped. 
The specimens before me vary from 20 inches to 3 feet or more in 
length, and from twelve-hundredths to sixteen-hundredths of an inch 
in diameter, measured at a point about half an inch above the root. 
REMARKS.—The most perfect of the four styles is 20 inches long with 
about 2 inches of the tip wanting, and twelve-hundredths of an inch in 
diameter near the base. The diameters of the others are, respectively, 
fourteen-hundredths, fifteen-hundredths, and sixteen-hundredths of an 
inch just above the base. The last specimen must have been over 3 feet 
in length, judging from the diameter of the axis at the point of fracture. 
While the arrangement of the polyps as seen in such portions of the 
styles as still hold their dried remains intact, indicates the unilateral 
and uniserial system above described, there is some little evidence of a 
twisting of the soft parts around the axis, which is not unusual in forms 
of this class. 
The polyps occur with much regularity to the number of six or eight 
to the inch or from twelve-hundredths to sixteen-hundredths of an ineh 
apart from center to center. 
The angularity of the style (though obtuse) and the one-sided arrange- 
ment of the polyps point to a close relationship with Pavonaria (P. 
quadrangularis) in one direction, and the root-shaped base closely con- 
nects the Pennatula tribe (Pennatulacea) with the Gorgonacea. 
When the characters of the axial styles in the various pennatulid 
groups are compared, the form described by Mr. Fisher as Virgularia 
ornatat from specimens dredged by him in Hakodadi Bay, Japan (7 
* Root-footed. +t Side-crested. 
{Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., 1874, Vol. V, p. 418. 
Proc. Nat. Mus. 83 7 July 27, i883. 
