B. ELONGATUS (!), CLAVATUS (!), Auctorum variorum.
Shell white: radii with their oblique summits rough and straight. Scutum without an adductor ridge: tergum with the spur rounded.
Hab.—Great Britain, Scandinavia, Arctic Regions as far as Lancaster Sound, in 74° 48′ N. (Mr Sutherland); Behring’s Straits (Captain Kellett); United States; Mediterranean; West Indies, (Mus. Brit.); Cape of Good Hope, (Mus. Krauss). Generally attached to shells and crustacea in deep water; sometimes to ships’ bottoms. Very common.
Fossil in glacial deposits of Scandinavia and Canada, Mus. Lyell; in the mammaliferous, and Red, and Coralline Crags, Mus. S. Wood, J. de C. Sowerby, Bowerbank; Miocene formation, Germany, Mus. Krantz.
I find, in most collections, this species confounded with [B. balanoides]; I have even seen the two species, placed by Leach, on the same tablet in the British Museum: [B. balanoides] is, moreover, generally confounded with [Chthamalus stellatus]; nor has any one hitherto separated the present species from [B. improvisus]. On the other hand, trifling varieties, both of [B. balanoides] and [B. crenatus], have commonly been considered as specifically distinct. From these facts it will be seen in what confusion our commonest British species of [Balanus] have been left. After due deliberation, I have little doubt that this is the B. crenatus of Bruguière, and probably the B. rugosus of Montagu, but this latter author omits all reference to the really important diagnostic characters between this species and [B. balanoides]. The [B. crenatus] is certainly the B. rugosus of Dr. Aug. Gould. In various collections, I find specimens of [B. crenatus], when coming from the arctic regions, called B. glacialis, arcticus, and borealis; though I have not met with an authentic specimen of the B. glacialis of Gray (‘Supp. Parry’s Voyage,’ 1819, p. ccxlvi), I have little doubt that it would prove to be the present species.
General Appearance.—White, usually of a dirty tint, from the yellowish or brownish persistent epidermis: conical, generally (fig. [6 a]) with the parietes rugged and irregularly folded longitudinally; but sometimes much depressed and extremely smooth ([6 b]); often cylindrical and very rugged; occasionally club-shaped ([6 c]), the upper part being much wider than the lower: specimens in this latter condition sometimes have extremely narrow parietes, like mere ribs, and wide radii. The orifice in the cylindrical varieties is often most deeply toothed. The radii are generally narrow, and have jagged oblique summits; but not infrequently they are so narrow as to form mere linear borders to the compartments. The orifice is rhomboidal, passing into oval, either very deeply or very slightly toothed.
Dimensions.—The largest British specimen which I have seen was only .55 of an inch in basal diameter: specimens from Greenland and the northern United States frequently attain a diameter of three-quarters of an inch, and I have seen one single somewhat distorted specimen actually 1.6 of an inch in basal diameter. The specimens from the glacial deposits of Uddevalla and Canada appear, on an average, to attain as large or larger dimensions than those from the United States: on the other hand, the specimens from the mammaliferous and Red Crag are smaller, the largest being only .35 in basal diameter. When individuals have grown crowded together, their length is often twice, and even occasionally thrice, as great as their greatest diameter; thus I have seen a Greenland specimen 1.6 of an inch in length, and only .75 in diameter. In the British Museum there are some arctic specimens, one and a half inch in length, only half an inch in diameter at the summit (fig. [6 c]), thence tapering downwards to a blunt point.
Scuta; the lines of growth are but little prominent: the surface is generally covered by disintegrating membrane. The upper ends are usually a little reflexed, so that the tips project freely as small flattened points. Internally, the articular ridge is highly prominent and somewhat reflexed: there is no adductor ridge, but a very distinct impression for the adductor muscle: the depression for the lateral depressor muscle is small, but variable. The terga are rather small: the spur is short, and placed at rather less than its own width from the basi-scutal angle; the basal margin slopes a little towards the spur, of which the lower end is rounded or bluntly pointed in a variable degree. There is no longitudinal furrow, hardly even a depression. Internally, the articular ridge is very prominent in the upper part; the crests for the tergal depressores are well developed, but variable.
Compartments.—The internal carinal margin of each compartment, from the sheath to the basis, generally, but not invariably, projects a little inwards beyond the general internal surface of the shell, in a manner not common with the other species of the genus: the basal edge of this projecting margin rests on the calcareous basis, and is crenated like the basal edges of the longitudinal parietal septa. The whole internal surface of the shell is ribbed, but the ribs are not very prominent. The parietal tubes are large, and are crossed in the upper part, and often low down, by transverse thin septa: the longitudinal parietal septa are only slightly denticulated at their bases; occasionally they divide at the basis close to the outer lamina of the parietes, making some short outer subordinate pores. In the circular furrow beneath the lower edge of the sheath, there are sometimes little ridges, dividing it into small cells: sometimes, however, this furrow is filled up by irregular knobs of calcareous matter. The radii are always rather narrow, and often they form mere linear ribbons of nearly uniform width along the edges of the compartments. Their summits or edges are always more or less irregular and jagged: they form an angle with the horizon of generally above 40°. Their septa are fine, and barely or not at all denticulated. The alæ have oblique summits: their sutural edges are rather thick and distinctly crenated. Basis flat, calcareous, very thin, with the surface slightly marked by radiating furrows, which furrows answer to the radiating pores that occur in the bases of most species. In a club-shaped arctic specimen, one inch and a half in length, the summit being half an inch and the base only one fifth of an inch in diameter, the basis was still calcareous, thick, and not permeated by pores.
Mouth: labrum with six teeth: mandibles with the fourth tooth minute or rudimentary, and the fifth generally confluent with the inferior angle. Maxillæ with generally, but not invariably, a small notch under the upper pair of great spines. Cirri, first pair with the rami very unequal in length, one ramus being nearly twice the length of the other; in a large specimen having a cylindrical shell the proportional numbers of the segments in the two rami of the first cirrus were ten to twenty-three; in a small conical specimen the numbers were only eight to thirteen. The second cirrus has only two or three more segments than the shorter ramus of the first pair: the third cirrus has one or two more segments than the second; but it is nevertheless decidedly longer than the second. On the dorsal surfaces of both segments of the pedicel of the third cirrus, there is a tuft of fine spines. The segments of these three pairs of cirri are not much protuberant in front. The segments of the posterior cirri have, each, four, or five, or six pairs of spines. Penis, with a straight, sharp, short point on the dorsal basis.