16 x2 | N. ANNANDALE: Sponges of the Malabar Zone. 393 
race of C. burmanica (the only species as yet found east of the 
Bay of Bengal), occur in the Western Ghats. One of them ranges 
eastwards and northwards in practically identical form to Luck- 
now, another has been found north of the Tapti River and the 
third occurs in one form at Cape Comorin, in Travancore and at 
Tanjore near the east coast of Madras, and in another on the 
western side of the Ghats in Bombay. 
It is difficult to sdy what are the exact limits of distribution 
of Stratospongilla. Although I believe that this subgenus is 
founded on characters of sufficient weight, it is difficult to say 
whether it is really distinct from Potamolefis,.' Marshall, the gem- 
mules of which are unknown. Certain African species, however, 
namely Spongilla sumatrana, Weber, S. rousseletit, Kirkpatrick, and 
possibly S. cunningtont, Kirkpatrick, are closely related to the 
three Indian species, S. indica, S. gravely: and S. bombayensis, the 
type of the subgenus. S. sumatrensts was originally described 
from the Malay Archipelago, as its name would suggest, and it is 
possible that the two African forms which Weltner has ascribed to 
the species as varieties are specifically distinct from it, if not one 
from the other. In any case the three forms at present associated 
under the name are closely related to S. indica, S. gravely: ard 
less closely to S. bombayensis, which occurs in Natal as well as 
India. These sponges differ considerably from the Congo species 
originally ascribed to Potamolepis by Marshall (15) and even from 
P. barroisi, Topsent (17) from the Lake of Tiberias. They are, how- 
ever, less different from the latter than they are from the former, 
while the species from Western China and the Philippines (S. cog- 
gimt and S. clementis) that I have assigned provisionally to Strato- 
spongilla (4,5) come very near to P. barroist, from which it is 
difficult to believe that they are subgenerically distinct. It is note- 
worthy, moreover, that the gemmules of S. coggini are of a very 
simple nature, totally lacking microscleres, as is also the case with 
two of the Tanganyika species, while the gemmule-spicules of 
S.clementis are small and poorly developed. The fact that the gem- 
mules of all known species of Potamolepis are wanting is, however, 
one of little importance. I recently examined a large collection of 
Spongillidae from France and Switzerland comprising all the com- 
mon European species of Spongilla and Ephydatia. Only a very 
small proportion of the specimens, most of which had been col- 
lected in summer, contained gemmules. On the other hand I have 
recently found these bodies in Veluspa bacillifera from Wake 
Baikal and they are known to occur in many sponges not even 
remotely related to the Spongillidae. 
On the whole, therefore, we can only say as regards Stvato- 
spongilla that the species which occur in the Malabar Zone are 
closely allied to African species but have, with one exception, not 
1 I cannot accept the view that Potamolepis is identical with the S. American 
genus Uvaguaya, the gemmule-spicules of which resemble those of Tyochospon- 
gilla, Veluspa, Micl. Macl. (Lubomirskia, auct.) is not, in my opinion, a Spon- 
gillid at all. 
