216 REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. 



sent a certain development of form and parts not met with in the ordinary 

 forms of Hydrozoa. The central disc of the compomid forms requires a 

 special designation : and the little bar or funicle connecting the two 

 halves of the frond or polypary should be distinguished from the barren 

 portions of the stipes or branches which rise from it, and we must still 

 use the distinctive term "solid axis." 



In the present paper, I shall have less hesitation in the use of the 

 simple and more easily understood terms, because the larger proportion 

 of copies will fall into the hands of those who will more readily compre- 

 hend and apply them. Following the preceding discussion of the general 

 character and forms among the Graptolitidce, we proceed to consider the 

 different parts, beginning with the initial point. 



III. Central or Basal Portions of the Cirajytolite. 



1. The radicle, or initial '^oini {liydr or liico): 2. The funicle, or non- 

 celluliferous connecting portions of the compound fronds, and the barren 

 poi'tions of the stipe (Jiydrocaidus) : 3. The central disc. 



1. THE BADICLE, OB INITIAL POIWT. 



In the most simple forms, or those Avith two stipes, as shown in the 

 figures on Plate iii, there is a slender initial process, which I have termed 

 the radicle. This presents a greater or less development in the different 

 species ; in some being reduced to a mere pustule, or scarcely perceptible 

 point, while in others it attains a quarter of an inch or more in length. 

 Although in none of the species with a single range of cellules does this 

 part show absolute evidence of having been attached to any other sub- 

 stance at the maturity of the fronds, yet it is possible that in the earlier 

 period of its growth, the body may have been temporarily attached at 

 this point to the sea-bottom or to some other oljject; though all the 

 evidence is opposed to this view. 



In some of the bi-celluliferous forms, and probably in all of them, there 

 is a somewhat similar extension below the l^ase of the celluliferous por- 

 tion of the stipe, though it is usually more slender ; but whether this is 

 always the true initial point of the whole body, or whether it is only the 

 broken point of attachment to a frond, may sometimes admit of doubt. 

 It is conspicuous in Phijllograptiis tijpus; and we observe this feature also 

 in Retiograptus ; but in one species of this we learn that it is only a 

 broken process of attachment of the individual stipe by its solid axis, 



