194 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. VI, 



circumstances resting buds with a hard chitinous coat are pro- 

 duced and He dormant until the return of favourable conditions. 



Key to the genera of the Paludicellidae. 



1. No buds produced at the distal end of the 



zooecium. 



[a) Zooecia narrowly flask-shaped, semi- 



recumbent or at any rate with the 

 dorsal surface clearly distinct from the 

 ventral . . . . . . Paludicella. 



(b) Zooecia tubular, upright ; the dorsal 



and ventral surfaces identical . . Pottsiella. 



2. Buds produced at the distal end of the 



zooecia. 



Zooecia (when adult) tubular, nearly up- 

 right, more or less swollen at the base Victor ella. 



Genus Paludicella, Gervais. 



Zooecia narrowly vase-shaped with the dorsal surface distinct 

 from the ventral ; the orifice situated on a tubular outgrowth from 

 the former ; no distal buds ; collar without chitinous chaetae. No 

 part of the alimentary canal of the polypide lined with chitin 

 and only that part which surrounds the pyloric aperture of the 

 stomach ciliated ; no defined compressor muscle round the cardiac 

 chamber, although separate fibres can be distinguished. The 

 stomach connected with the zooecial wall by two funiculi, one 

 of which bears the ovary, the other the testis, the former being 

 situated nearer the pyloric orifice than the other. There are i6 

 tentacles. 



Paludicella ehrenbergi, van Beneden. 



(PL xiii, fig. I.) 



Syn. Alcyonella articulata, Bhrenberg; Paludicella procumhans, 

 Hancock ; Paludicella elongata, Leidy. 



This is the only species I am able to assign to the genus. Its 

 zoaria as a rule form upright branches consisting of zooecia arising 

 directly one from another. Basal stolon-like tubules are never 

 formed. The lateral basal buds are often suppressed, or only one 

 of them is produced, so that budding is in linear series with only 

 a few lateral branches instead of a cruciform figure, There is a 

 slightly dilated but slender oval chamber between the cardia and 

 the stomach proper. Its walls are glandular and not very thick. 



P. ehrenbergi is common in Europe and America but probably 

 does not occur in the Ethiopian and Oriental regions. 



Genus Pottsiella, Kraepelin. 



The zooecia differ from those of Paludicella in being entirely 

 vertical and in being separated at the base by stolon-like tubules. 



