Compartments:—The internal surface of the parietes is smooth in the upper part beneath the sheath, but generally very strongly ribbed in the lower part, the ribs being plainly denticulated at their bases; in other specimens, the ribs are very small, and even in parts quite obsolete. The parietal pores are short and imperfect, sometimes reduced to an extremely minute size, to be detected only when the walls are broken across near the basal edge, and most carefully examined; occasionally not even a trace of a pore exists. Hence in this respect, this species offers a singular case of variation. The radii are narrow, and of nearly the same width from top to bottom; their very oblique summits, when well preserved, are smooth and rounded; their sutural edges are ribbed or crenated with extremely fine, smooth septa; the recipient furrow is plainly marked by these septa. The sutural edges of the alæ are crenated; their summits are less oblique than those of the radii.
Basis, thin, finely furrowed in lines radiating from the centre; margin sometimes deeply sinuous.
Mouth: labrum with the central notch rather widely open, with four teeth on each side of it: palpi with very short spines along their inner margins: mandibles with the fourth and fifth teeth forming mere knobs: maxillæ small, with a mere trace of a notch under the two great upper spines. Cirri; first pair with the rami unequal by three or four segments, the longer ramus being only one quarter of its own length longer than the other ramus. Second pair short, with the segments (and those of the shorter ramus of first pair) somewhat protuberant. Third pair with the rami one third longer than those of the second pair. Sixth pair with the upper segments elongated, and bearing six or seven pairs of spines.
Affinities.—This species in general appearance closely approaches [B. crenatus] and [balanoides], and it is related to them in many essential parts, such as in the opercular valves. It agrees with [B. balanoides], and differs from [B. crenatus], in the smallness and imperfection of the parietal pores, and in the radii having rounded summits; it agrees with [B. crenatus] in the structure of its basis, and in the prominent longitudinal ribs on the internal surface of the parietes, and differs from that species in the spur of the tergum being squarer, and in the scutum having an adductor ridge.
Range.—From the appearance of the Californian specimens, I suspect that they had adhered to tidal shells and to wood. The specimens in the British Museum, adhering to Pollicipes polymerus, consist of two lots, one of unknown origin, and the other certainly brought from the southern half of the Pacific Ocean by Sir James Ross: it deserves notice, that the Pollicipes polymerus, the supporting object, ranges from California to the southern Pacific Ocean.
Section E.
Basis membranous.