44 Records of the Indian Museum. [VoL. V, 
Plumatella polvmorpha, Kraepelin, Deutsch. Siisswass.-Brvozoen, 
pl. iv, fig. 119, pl. v, fig. 122, pl. vil, fig. 139 (1887). 
Plumatella repens, Braem, Bibl. Zool., vol. vii, p. 2 (1890). 
he ,,  Loppens, Ann. Biol. Lacustre, vol. 111, p. 158 
(partim) (1908). 
This species is distinguished rather by negative than by 
positive characters, and it is perhaps for this reason that I find it 
difficult at present to regard the form fungosa as more than a 
variety, although the latter appears to exhibit certain peculiarities 
even at a stage at which it has not assumed its most characteris- 
tic features. 
P. repens may be recognized by the following characters :— 
(1) The great majority of the free statoblasts in.any one 
zoatium are broadly oval in shape, the greatest width 
being at least + of the length. 
(2) Fixed statoblasts without air-cells are produced. 
(3) The zocecia, when-the polypides are contracted, are 
always round at the tip. They are never emarginate. 
(4) A furrowed keel is never present on the dorsal surface. 
(5) The pigmentation is never dense. 
(6) The zocecia are slender, and the ectocyst is never very 
stiff, although it is never soft and contractile as in 
P. punctata, the only species, except P. fruticosa, 
with which P. repens is likely to be confused. 
The first two of these characters will at once serve to distinguish 
P. repens from P. fruticosa, but it must be remembered that elongated 
statoblasts are occasionally found in the former species, although 
never in large numbers. ‘The swim-ring of the free statoblasts of 
P. repens is rarely much, if at all, broader at the sides than at 
the ends. 
Var. fungosa, Pallas. 
Tubularia fungosa, Pallas, Comment. Acad. Sci. Imp. Petropol., 
vol. xii, p. 565, pl. xiv (1768). 
Alcyonella fungosa, Allman, op. cit., p. 86, pl. iii (1856). 
Plumatella polymorpha var. fungosa, Kraepelin, op. cit., p. 124, 
pl. iv, fig. 112, pl. viii, figs. r40—142. 
Plumatella fungosa (partim), Braem, op. cit., p. 2, pl. 1, fig. 2. 
Plumatella repens var. fungosa, Loppens, op. cit., p. 161. 
The essential characters of this form seem to be (1) that the 
zoarium branches very profusely when still young and recumbent, 
and (2) that the ectocyst is surrounded by a gummy secretion. 
These characters cause crowding together of the zocecia, which are 
forced to assume an upright growth and finally, under pressure, a 
polygonal form in cross-section. Dense masses, often an inch or 
more in diameter, are thus produced, consisting of upright parallel 
tubes closely packed together. Specimens from Norfolk, which Dr. 
F. Harmer has been kind enough to send me, show the earlier stages 
