1907.] 



Records of the Indian Museum. 



141 



girth than was the case with Hving individuals in a position of rest, 

 owing to the fact that they died with the velum in a state of con- 

 traction. The figure (fig. 2) was drawn from a living specimen ; it 

 represents the tubercles on the external surface as rather larger and 

 more conspicuous than they really are, and only shows one of the 

 four radial canals. 



The free filaments of the trophosome are flaccid and incapable 

 of independent movement. 



Bimeria vestita, Wright. 

 From bricks in the river at Port Canning and from a pit of 



brackish water at the same place ; previously recorded from northern 



Europe and South America. 



My specimens differ injone important character from those des- 

 cribed from Europe, namely in 

 the extent and nature of the 

 chitinous investment of the peri- 

 sarc. Allman {Mon. Gymn. 

 Hydr., p. 298) describes "the 

 chitinous sheaths which invest 

 the bases of the tentacles" as 

 " suggesting the idea of a half- 

 gloved hand " and being of a 

 brown colour. This is not the 

 case in the specimens from Port 

 Canning , in which the perisarc is 

 of a pale horn-colour and the 

 chitin disappears at the base of 

 the tentacles so gradually that 

 it is impossible to say exactly 

 at what point it ceases. In 

 specimens from the Matla, how- 

 ever, it is darker and extends 

 further upwards than in the one 

 from the pit. Torrey {Pub. 

 Univ. California, Zool., i, p. 27) 

 has pointed out that the extent 

 and thickness of the chitinous 

 perisarc, which was formerly re- 

 garded as a generic character se- 

 parating Bimeria from Garveia, 

 is liable to considerable varia- 

 tion in North American species, 

 of which several have been 

 described. Another but less 

 noteworthy point in which my 

 specimens differ from the typical 

 form, is the irregular and often 



Fig, 3.-5. .../z7«; part of a colony from indistiuct aunulatiou of the 

 pit of brackish water, Ganges delta, x i6. stalks (^f the gOUOSOmCS ; but 



