1899] Odell — Freshwater PoLvzoy\. 113 



are surrounded by a thick jelly-like material, from which the 

 polypides protrude, and into which they retreat. These jelly- 

 masses are usually colourless and semi-transparent, or tin<^ed a 

 pale red. They are to be found adherent to sticks or any water- 

 soaked object, and vary in size from half an inch to several feet 

 in diameter." " The jelly is formed by the polypides, and is in 

 reality a collection of protective cells or chambers, the huge 

 masses often being the result of the increase in the numbers of 



the polypides inhabiting them A single pol}-pide begins 



the cluster, it becomes two by a process of budding, tlie bud 

 finally becoming another polypide, secreting more jelly, budding 

 in its turn, so that the community may in the end contain num- 

 berless members. The colour of the polypides is usually a pale 

 red or flesh tint,"* " and being in countless profusion in the jelly- 

 mass, are crowded together and become compressed into irregu- 

 lar hexagons in outline." The lophophore is horseshoe-shaped, 

 having from sixty to eighty tentacles. Towards the end of 

 summer the polypides mature and die, leaving the statoblasts 

 adhering to the surface of the jelly-mass. These statoblasts are 

 often in such large numbers as to be conspicuous to the eye. 

 They have a single row of barbed hooks, averaging fifteen in 

 number, proceeding from the outer edge of the annulus. Mature 

 statoblasts of Pectinatella and Cristatella while in the body of 

 the polypide, are inclosed in a transparent matrix or yolk. 

 Some statoblasts of P. magnifica collected from the Rideau 

 canal in September, '98, hatched in an aquarium, in March, 1 899, 

 but only lived two weeks. 



Locality and habitat. On a submerged stump in Patter- 

 son's Creek (Rideau canal) near Elgin street bridge. 5ept. 

 1898. 



*Stockes "Aquatic Microscopy," pp. 238-240. 



^§iC47> 



