Vinella, Aseodiotyon.] 



BEYOZOA. 



113 



pyriform vesicles. As Vinella, on the other hand, I would class those forms in which 

 they are absent. According to this arrangement the Ascodictyon radiciformis Vine, 

 would fall under Vinella. Not^o, however, the A. filiforme of the same author. 

 This species, so far as I can learn, even in its most simple form, has always an occa- 

 sional " lagena-like vesicle developed on the sides of the thread," while some of its 

 more complex varieties make a decided approach toward the Devonian type of the 

 genus, A. stellatum Nicholson and Ethridge, jun. 



In the accompanying cut (fig. 8), a represents a cluster of vesicles of Ascodictyon 

 stellatum, with a portion of the delicate stolon that connected it with similar clusters. 

 One example in my collection consists of eight of such clusters. In the majority of 

 the specimens seen, however, the clusters are much less regular, and in many cases 

 the vesicles are distributed with little or no regularity over,the surface of the body 

 to which the zoarium is attached. In all cases, when the fossil is in a good state of 

 preservation, these vesicles, whether isolated or arranged in radial aggregations 

 will be found to be connected with each other by a delicate filament ; and in this 

 species at least, the surface of the vesicles exhibits a large number of minute pores. 



Fig. 8. 



Figure b of the same cut represents a natural size view of the only specimen seen 

 of the Cincinnati form, that I propose naming Vinella radialis. It consists of four 

 principal colonies or nuclei, growing upon an Orthoceras. Only the form is preserved, 

 and even that not well. However, sufficient remains to show that it belongs to an 

 undescribed species, with the probabilities greatly in favor of Vinella as its final 

 resting place. The radial arrangement is more regular, and the radii straighter 

 than in any other form of the genus known to me. 



Figures c and d of the same cut illustrate an unquestionable species of Vinella, 

 of which a number of excellent specimens were collected in the Niagara shales near 

 Waldron, Indiana. One of the figures is magnified four and a half diameters, the 



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