48 Records of the Indian Museum. [ VOIAENS 
Both free and fixed statoblasts are produced in considerable 
numbers. 
In Lower Bengal at any rate, most well-developed zoaria as- 
sume, sooner or later, the form described hy Allman undet the 
name Alcyonella benedem. ‘This is apparently due to the fact that 
the growth of the zoarium is vigorous, that proper space for its 
expansion, in the general absence of large areas of attachment of a 
suitable kind, cannot be found in a horizontal plane, and that the 
organism is therefore crowded. Profuse branching takes place and 
the branches are closely pressed together and forced to assume a 
vertical direction. The individual zocecia affected become elongated, 
although not to the same extent as in P. repens var. fungosa; they 
do not lose their power of branching, that is to say, of producing 
daughter zocecia; no gummy substance is secreted.! The masses 
formed are, therefore, analogous to those of the corallotdes phase of 
Fe, fruticosa rather than to those of P. repens vat. fungosa. 
P. emarginata is a common species in the East. I have mvself 
found it abundant in Calcutta and the neighbourhood, and also 
both in Upper and in Lower Burma (Rangoon and Mandalay), 
in the Malay Peninsula (Jalor in the Patani States) and in Lower 
Siam (Tale Noi, Lakon Sitamarat). Indian specimens agree with 
a German one sent me by Dr. Kraepelin as typical of his Plumatella 
princeps var. emarginata. ‘The species is usually found in ponds, 
adhering to solid objects either at the bottom or on the surface, 
such as stones, logs of wood or large woody seeds ; it flourishes in 
) 
the cold weather, but small feeble colonies, with the majority of the 
polypides dead, may sometimes be found during the “ rains 
(July to September). 
Plimatella alimant, Hancock. 
Plumatella allmani, Hancock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2), vol. v 
p. 200, pl. v, figs. 3—5 (1850). 
Plumatella diffusa, Letdv, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. v, 
p. 261 (1851). 
Plumatella diffusa, P. allmani, and P. dumortieri, 4/l/man, op. cit., 
pp. 105, 106, 108, pl. viii, figs. I—5. 
Under the name Plumatella allmani 1 here group several forms 
that have been practically ignored by recent writers on the Phy- 
lactolemata, except perhaps Jullien, whose synonymy cannot be 
elucidated without an examination of the specimens on which he 
worked. These forms, however, seem to me to deserve, together. 
specific rank, being related to P. emarginata but invariably dis- 
tinguishable from that species. It is possible that they include 
more than one species, but the different forms~ here described 
must be regarded for the present as varieties. 
The essential characters in which P. allman: differs from P. 
emarginata, the only form with which confusion is likely, are the 
following :—- 
y 
1 Kraepelin’s P. princeps var. muscosa is not identical with ‘‘Alcyonella benedent.’’ 
