560 Records of the Indian Museum, [ VOL..2a; 
already existing. On the other hand, buds which ultimately be- 
come free seem to have evolved to this end alone: they are new 
structures the one purpose of which is the multiplication and dis- 
tribution of forms like the parent. They are probably the most 
primitive of the budding types and the forerunners of the other 
types mentioned above. 
Amongst the rare cases of escaping buds that of Myriothela 
cocksit, Vigurs [British specimens of which have heen frequently 
misnamed Myrtothela phrygia (Fabricius)] stands somewhat apart. 
In this species the buds are spherical masses attached to the 
parent by a thick stalk, and appear to reach a miniature adult 
stage before they are set free. Hardy, however, assures us that 
‘*all connection with the body of the parent is lost at a very 
early period, almost before the bud has reformed its ectoderm and 
endoderm and enteric cavity. It remains attached to the perisarc, 
however, by a sucker-like arrangement at the aboral pole until it 
is fully formed’’ (Hardy, 1891, p. 513 and pl. xxxvi, fig. 13). 
This might almost be regarded as a transitional stage, which 
although in fact a free bud, retains the aspect of an attached 
miniature adult. 
Moerisia furnishes a more definite example of exparental 
development. The buds of this peculiar form are oval and are 
attached by short peduncles to the parent body, usually in the 
proximal region of the hydranth. As indicated above they 
‘“‘ occasionally develop one or two tentacles’’ before they are set 
free, and some may therefore be regarded as attached miniature 
adults, but the majority of the buds ‘‘ become completely detached 
from the parent body’’ before they begin to assume polyp struc- 
ture (Boulenger, 1908, p. 363). Rare as such cases are, Moerisia 
is by no means a unique example. 
Haleremita cumulans, Schaudinn, seems to depend entirely 
upon liberated planula-like buds for its dissemination and multi- 
plication, for no trace of sex-cells has been discovered (Schaudinn, 
1894, p. 227). The buds, which at the time of liberation are 
much elongated and planula-like, arise sometimes just beneath 
the tentacle zone and sometimes near the base of the hydranth 
and up to six may be found on a polyp at one time. After being 
set free they develop a mouth and creep upon the bottom, simple 
two-layered sacculae, which retain their simplicity for some 14 
months before the tentacles of the adult make their appearance. 
Some have been observed to develop buds of their own while yet 
in the saccula stage. 
Much resemblance exists between the general structure and 
bud-formation of Haleremita and that of the larva of Gonionemus 
murbachit Mayer, described by Perkins (1903). The unusual 
stumpy conical shape of Haleremita is duplicated in the Gonionemus 
hydroid, and in both there are four tentacles set crosswise in a 
single whorl. Both lack sex-cells and both reproduce by planula- 
like buds. Haleremita is unusual amongst hydroids is possessing 
only one type of nematocyst, but Perkins’ description (p. 786) 
