368 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Dr. Williams in describing this species figured sections of the stem, which is substan- 

 tially complete, with its root attached to a Spirifer, as shown by my figure 1 on Plate L — 

 a few columnals only being missing at the fracture. The original figure is misleading and 

 quite fails to show the slender turbinate outline of the crown, and narrow iBr spaces ; com- 

 pared with my figure, which is made with photographic accuracy direct from the type, it 

 would scarcely be supposed to have been from the same specimen. The IIBr are inconstant, 

 varying from 3 to 4, sometimes 5. The anal side is not shown, except slightly in figure 4. 



This species comes from the Ithaca formation, upper Devonian. It bears considerable 

 resemblance to Taxocrimis communis, from the base of the Carboniferous, from which it 

 might not be easily distinguished but for the number of primibrachs. This and the next 

 species occur rather plentifully in the shales about Cayuga Lake, chiefly in the form of natural 

 moulds ; but the type specimen is well preserved in its rotund condition. Apparently the 

 attachment of the stem to other objects is a frequent condition, as Williams says it was so 

 found in several cases. 



Types. Museum of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 



Horizon and locality. Upper Devonian, Portage group; Ithaca, New York. 



Eutaxocrinus alpha (Williams) 

 Plate L, figs. 2, 4, 5 



When describing the preceding species Dr. Williams gave the varietal name alpha to a 

 small form occurring at the same localities, but from a higher horizon. He published no 

 figures, but later furnished me casts from the original natural moulds of the specimens which 

 he regarded as types ; these are shown by my figures 2 and 4 on Plate L, to which I add 

 figure 5, of a specimen with a long stem having prominent elongate columnals. After the 

 plate was printed I came into possession of a number of similar specimens of this variety 

 having more or less of the stem preserved, all exhibiting a striking uniformity in the small 

 size and in the stem characters. The crown is usually short, less than 5 mm. in height, with 

 the arms limited to two visible bifurcations ; and the stem is proportionally very long, — in one 

 case 15 cm. without reaching the extremity. There are a few thin ossicles conically enlarging 

 next to the calyx, followed by alternating ossicles, with the larger ones convex ; in the median 

 part the columnals increase in size, becoming rather uniformly elongate, barrel-shaped or 

 doubly conical ; beyond this the stem diminishes gradually to a slender thread, and the 

 columnals become cylindrical and proportionally very much elongated. These are all thor- 

 oughly juvenile characters ; hut in view of the difference in horizon, and greater regularity in 

 the size and proportions of the stem ossicles in a good series of specimens, it is advisable to 

 recognize this form as a full species, of which figure 5 represents the typical form, rather 

 than figures 2 and 4. 



Type. University of Cornell ; other specimens figured and studied are in the author's 

 collection, and in the State Museum at Albany, New York. 



Horizon and locality. Chemung group, in layers about 300 feet above those of E. itha- 

 censis; Ithaca and Avoca, New York. 



