Vol. Ill, No. 1,] 



yf India. 23 



as^ long as broad. Skeleton foi^ming a close reticulation with 

 triangular or subtriangular meshes. No flesh spicules, Birotu- 

 lates with the edge of the outer disc turned inwards and the 

 lower disc flat, the dinmeter of the discs about five times that 

 of the shaft, which is about half as broad as long. The gemmules 

 separate, cylindrical, with a thin microcell layer, in which the 

 birotulates are embedded vertically, their upper discs forming 

 prominences on its external surface ; the aperture infundibular ; 

 each gemmule enclosed in a dense basket-work of skeleton spi- 

 cules; the gemmules forming irregular, one-layered patches in the 

 base of the sponge, not distributed uniformly over its support. 



Average diameter of gemmule .,, 0"18 mm. 



„ length of skeleton spicules ... 0'1775 „ 



M „ „ birotulate spicules ... 0'015 ,, 



„ diameter of amphidisc ... 0*0225 „ 



BemarJc^. 



This Sponge is readily distinguishable from the preceding 

 species by the form of Its skeleton spicules. It often extends for 

 at least 60 square inches over the surface of brickwork at the 

 edo-e of the tank, but is never more than four or five millimetres 



O - 



thick. The patches of gemmules at its base are of very irregular 

 outline, and often form almost a reticulated pattern ; they are a 

 striking feature in living specimens, in which they are of a bright 

 golden-yellow colour. Owing to the situations it affects, T. 

 phdlotti<inti is more liable to desiccation than the majority of the 

 Freshwater Sponges found in Calcutta. When it dries up the 

 gemmules remain attached 1*^0 its support on acount of the firm 

 receptacle of skeleton spicules in which each is held. The 

 aflBnites of the species are probably with the preceding form. 

 T. philloftinna is named after Lieut-Col. D. C. Phillott, 

 Secretary to the Board of Examiners, Calcutta, and Honorary 

 General Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 



11- 



The following note refers to the lake named Bhim Tal^ 

 which is situated at an altitude of 4,500 feet in the outer range of 

 the central Himalayas, and to a smaller tarn, one of those known 

 as the Seven Lakes ( Sath Tal), at a distance of about three miles 

 from Bhim Tal and at a slighty lower altitude Naini Tal 

 (6,400 feet) was also searched for Sponges, but in vain. 



At the end of the rains (the time of my visit) Bhim Tal is 

 rather over a mile in length and about a quarter of a mile broad. 

 lis depth has been artifically increased during the last few years 

 for purposes of irrigation, and varies at present at different spotB 

 from about 15 to over 100 feet. Such water-weeds as grow in it 

 were entirely or almost entirely submerged, and the water was tliick 

 and plightly malodorous, apparently owing to the growth of a 



