NO. 1658. ALCYONARIA OF THE CALIFORNIAN COAST— NUTTING. 693 



The twelfth leaf begins to show signs of the frilled border which is 

 characteristic of the species. Beyond this, going upward, the leaves 

 increase regularly in size and complexity of frilling, the largest being 

 at about the middle of the rachis. (See Plate LXXXIV, figs. 7 and 8.) 



A typical, full-sized leaf measures 4.2 inches around the sinuations 

 of the polypiferous border, but is only 1.4 inches in greatest length, 

 measured in a straight line, and has 75 polyps in the outer row, or 

 about 275 to the entire leaf. The writer estimates that there are 

 about 25,000 polyps to the entire colony. 



Each leaf nearly meets its fellow on the dorsal side of the rachis, but 

 not on the ventral, as shown in figs. 7 and 8, Plate LXXXIV. The 

 leaves are very closely set and retain nearly their maximum size to 

 near the distal end of the colony, where they diminish rapidly, forming 

 a rosette-shaped mass at the apex of the colony, as illustrated in 

 %. 1, Plate LXXXV. 



THE CALYCES. 



The individual calyx is terete in form, about 3 mm. long, each 

 coalescing with its neighbors on either side so that only the margins 

 are exserted. The margin is ornamented with two rounded rather 

 prominent teeth, which are opposite and situated in the upper and 

 lower sides of the margin in the natural position of the leaf. This is 

 well shown in fig. 5, Plate LXXXV, which is a photograph of the edge 

 of a leaf in a vertical instead of a horizontal position, the camera 

 being focussed on a single row of calyces, shown to the left of the 

 figure. 



Owing to the crowding of the calyces it is sometimes cUfficult to 

 make out the number and position of the teeth, particular^ when the 

 polyps are expanded. 



When the polyps are retracted, the teeth are more or less approxi- 

 mated, those from the opposite sides of the margin closing over the 

 calycular opening. When the polyps are expanded, the teeth are 

 widely divaricated. 



A cross section of a leaf just below the calyces shows that the latter 

 are continued downward by partitions that extend across the leaf, 

 connecting its lower and upper surfaces. It thus comes about that 

 these longitudinal chambers, which are continuous wdth the body 

 cavities of the polyps, are uniserial, while the polyps on the border are 

 in three and sometimes four series. This appears to be due to the 

 crowding of the polyps which originally are in one row and are thrown 

 into three rows by the fact that the edge of the leaf can not accom- 

 modate them in one row. A section taken across this polypiferous 

 border at about the level of the oesophageal tubes of the pol3^ps shows 

 this very well as will be seen on consulting the upper section of fig. 8, 

 Plate LXXXV. The middle and lower sections of the same figure 

 show that the chambers which are continuations of the body cavities 



