THE FAUNA OF BRACKISH PONDvS AT 

 PORT CANNING, LOWER BEN GAL. 



Part III. — An Isoi^ated Race of the Actinian Metridiuni 

 schillerianum (Stoliczka). 



By N. AnnandaIvE, D.Sc, Officiating Superintendent, 

 Indian Museum. 



METRIDIUM SCHILLERIANUM (Stoliczka). 



Sagartia schillcriana , Stoliczka, Journ Asiat. Soc. Bengal, part 

 2, vol. xxxviii, 1869, p 28 ; plates x, xi ; R. Hertwig, Zool. Rep. 

 H.M.S "Challenger," vol. vi, 1882, Actiniaria, p. 71. 



Although Stoliczka 's description of the typical form of the 

 species is very detailed, the imperfect knowledge of the structure of 

 the Actinians possessed thirty-nine years ago by students of the 

 Ccelenterates, misled him as regards certain important characters 

 while the fact that he cut no sections prevented him from detecting 

 others. His types are now in a bad state of preservation, the tissues 

 being shrunk and partly decomposed, and have assumed a dark 

 brown colour of which I have been unable to get rid. I have how- 

 ever, cut sections of two of these specimens, which proved to be so 

 far intact that the arrangement of the mesenteries could be detected. 

 Further, I have made vertical and transverse sections of two fresh 

 examples of this form, and have dissected two others, as well as 

 sectioning four specimens of the new variety, dissecting six, and 

 examining a very much larger number externally. The following 

 description of the species and its variety is based on the material 

 thus used. Although it differs considerably from Stoliczka 's written 

 description, it will be found to be in most respects, so far as the 

 t3'pical form is concerned, in accord with his figures, which, for the 

 reasons given above, he appears to have misinterpreted in spite of 

 the accuracy of his observations. 



Description of the Typical Form of the Species. 



Colourless in spirit ; in life translucent, the column being more 

 or less deeply tinged w4th green and having a variable number of 

 semi -opaque vertical stripes arranged in multiples of six and repre- 

 senting the better developed of the intramesenterial spaces ; parts 



