igoS.] Records of the Indian Mtiseiim. 13 



Spongilla lacitstris in Europe and in 5. cartcri, S. reticulata and 

 5. crassissima in India. The Port Canning form of Victor ella 

 lias not as yet been found in close connection with the sponge 

 [S. alba) so common in the same ponds, but owing to the small 

 area of the objects to which the colonies are attached^ the 

 zooecia are crowded together in ver}" much the same way as would 

 be the case if they were included in the substance of a sponge ; 

 they stand to one another, to put the matter in a different way, 

 in much the same relation as the zooecia of Pluniatella coralloidcs 

 stand to the tissues of the sponge in which they are inclosed. 



K\\ the zooecia of V. symbiotic a figured by Rousselet are 

 circular in cross-section throughout ; while in V . bengalensis some 

 are circular or nearly so, some distinctly square. 



The nature of the gizzard, which in the Indian form though 

 thin-walled (as compared with that of Bowerbankia) is decidedly 

 muscular, may be a more important feature from a systematic 

 point of view. Saville Kent denied that V . pavida had a gizzard 

 at all, while Bousfield called attention to its existence. That 

 the statement of the former author was due to a misapprehen- 

 sion is ver3" possible, for even Hincks, whose experience of the 

 Poh'zoa was very much greater, at first placed the form he after- 

 wards called Bowerbankia caudata in the genus Valkeria, on the 

 ground that it had no gizzard. In this case, however, Hincks 

 had only somewhat badly preserved specimens on which to base 

 his diagnosis in the first instance, while Kent observed his speci- 

 mens alive and was accustomed to minute microscopic investi- 

 gation. I cannot, therefore, see any ground at present for sepa- 

 rating the Victorella of Lower Bengal generically from that of 

 Europe, although I am forced to regard it as a new species, for 

 it is possible that the nature of the gizzard is a variable charac- 

 ter, while the exact form of the connection between the zooecia 

 is one that actually differs in different parts of the same colony : 

 as a rule it has the quadriradiate formation regarded as so im- 

 portant by Rousselet, whose remarks on this point {op. cit., p. 

 252) are in full agreement with mine {Rec. Ind. Miis., i, p. 201) 

 on the " false stolon " of the Paludicellida^. 



I have recently found Victorella in a pond of fresh water near 

 Calcutta, the specimens agreeing in every respect with those taken 

 this winter at Port Canning. 



Bowerbankia caudata (Hincks). 



I have been able to observe no difference between the speci- 

 mens taken last year and those taken this. In several of the 

 tanks I found colonies of the species interlaced with colonies of 

 the h3'-droid Irene ceylonensis, which the floods already alluded 

 to have apparently enabled to extend its range in the ponds con- 

 siderably, as it was previously found in one of them only but is 

 now common in nearly all. It will, I think, be convenient to dis- 

 tinguish the Port Canning form as " race bengalensis^ 



