44 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. XXII, 



The facts in regard to the reproductive elements and the 

 reproductive processes which have been ascertained through a 

 study of this material reveal a curious parallel between it and 

 Crista and other Cyclostomes. In both, testis is abundan* 

 while ovar}^ is apparently correspondingly scarce. Is it perhaps 

 true, as has been shown for Crista, that but few ova are produced , 

 oj; that ova arrive at maturity in Ijut one zocecium, or in but few 

 zooecia ? Again, since, the ovicells and embryos are of such size 

 and character it seems probable that zooecia destined to become 

 ovicells are earb/ set apart for that purpose, and likewise possible, 

 as in the Cyclostomes, that the ova are produced in the growing 

 tissues and become secondarily united with a zocecium. Judging 

 from the size of the embryos together with their small number, 

 the supposition that embryonic fission may occur here is not 

 improbable, and increases the interest in this species as an object 

 of study. 



l6. Farciminaria andamanensis, sp. nov. 



Part of a colony consisting of a long stem and numerous 

 branches (fig. 4, A). Stem incomplete, made up of four rows of 

 aborted zooecia arranged around an imaginary axis, four sided, 

 the corners strengthened by chitinous bars or modified root fibres, 

 from the inner edges of which strong teeth project into the 

 interior of the zooecia ; the four zooecia in each group at the same 

 level so that the stem has a segmented appearance. At the distal 

 end the stem divides into two branches connected for a short 

 distance by a filmy membrane. The segmented appearance 

 continues for four or six segments above the first branches when 

 the second branching occurs, and the zooecia from this point 

 contain polypides. The branches, at first biserial, soon become 

 tri- or quadriserial, the zooecia assuming an alternate arrangement 



(fig. 4, ^)- . . 



Branches lose their segmentation, and the zooecia face out- 

 wardly and laterally. ZocFcia elongated, area occupying the 

 whole of the front. Orifice at the summit closed with a protruding 

 lip. No spines and no avicularia. No ocecia have been observed. 

 In older parts of the colony rounded or oval bodies occur which 

 may be embryos. These are always found, when they occur, in 

 the upper part of the zooecium, sometimes in company' with a 

 degenerating polypide, again with a regenerating one. These are 

 not brown bodies. 



Considerable hesitation is experienced in placing this speci- 

 men in this genus since the zooecia are not all arranged around an 

 imaginary axis, as is usually described for Farciminaria, but 

 simply folded, as it were, one or two middle rows projecting 

 forward and the two lateral rows turned somewhat, so that the 

 zooecia when viewed from the front are seen in profile. So many 

 characters, however, both of the zooecia and of the zoarium as a 

 whole, are Farciminarian that it seems to belong here rather than 

 with any allied genus. 



