Prof. Brewer presented the following papers:
Description of a New Species of Virgularia from the Coast of California.
BY WM. M. GABB.
Virgularia Lam.
V. gracilis Gabb.
Polypidom long and very slender. Decorticated stem circular or elliptical in section, smooth on the surface. Polypiferous lobes, slender, exsert, lunate, acute at the tips and broad at the base; arranged obliquely and alternately on the antero-lateral face of the stem. These lobes occupy the upper half of the polypidom; retaining their full size to the extreme apex, but diminishing below, so that on the middle of the stem they are exceedingly minute; and an inch or two below, are only represented by a slight ridge on the sheath, in which are two or three cells. The lower fourth of the sheath is dilated to about three times the thickness of the rest of the stem.
Length 19 inches; diameter of the naked stem .03 in.; smallest diameter of stem, with the sheath, .04; diameter of expanded base .13 in.; length of largest lobes .15 in.
Locality, Bay of Monterey, 20 fms. Collected by Dr. J. G. Cooper, of the State Geological Survey.
This species can be at once distinguished from V. elongata, G. (Proc. Cal. A. N. S., vol. 2, p. 167) by its more slender form, its proportionally large polypiferous lobes, its cylindrical stem, without any grooves, and by the comparatively smaller portion of the stem bearing the lobes.