FRESH-WATER SPONGES IN THE COLLECTION OF THE 

 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. — PART II. 

 SPECIMENS FROM NORTH AND SOUTH MIERICA. 



By Nelson Annandale, 



Superintendent of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



With the possible exception of specimens from Peru which are 

 unfortunately indeterminable, the American specimens in the col- 

 lection do not include examples of any undescribed species. Several 

 of them, however, are noteworthy in affording proof of the identity 

 of certain Indian forms with species long known from North 

 America, on account of their locality, or for other reasons, and others 

 have enabled me to carry out a little piece of work much more 

 interesting than the description of new species. 



Before proceeding to comment on the American specimens I would 

 like to supplement a statement made in my description of Spongilla 

 cleTnentis"' which, on reading the paper in print, I do not think quite 

 clear. The membrane referred to as sending "branches or hollow 

 root-like processes downward at intervals" is at the base of the 

 sponge, and the root-like processes must have been in intimate con- 

 tact with the object to which it was attached. 



Genus SPONGILLA Wierzejski. 



Subgenus EUSPONGILLA Vejdovsky. 



SPONGILLA LACUSTRIS of authors. 



There are in the collection specimens from Alaska of what ap})ears 

 to l)e the typical form of this species, but devoid of gemmules. Tliey 

 arc labeled "McDonald T^ake, Alaska. About 3 feet deep. Very 

 abundant. Color bright green. J. S. Burcham. Sept. 11, 1905. 

 Bureau of Fisheries. Ace. No. 46416." 



The Indian form of S. lacustris, of which I have now examined 

 specimens from Bombay, Eastern and Lower Bengal, Orissa, and 

 Madras, is distinguished from that of the Holarctic Region by the 



a Proc. U. S. Nat. Mas., vol. 36, p. 631. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vou 37— No. 1712. 

 Proc. N.M. vol. 37— 09 26 401 



