312 N. Annandai^e : Aquatic animals from Tibet. [Vol. II, 



The specimens, which are much contracted and have suffered 

 in transit, have a pale orange-brown colour in spirit; but Capt. 

 Stewart tells me that they were red in life. Some of them have 

 five and some six tentacles; no gonads are present, but one indivi- 

 dual bears a large bud with hve well-developed tentacles. The 

 bud arises very near the base of the parent polyp. The larger 

 nematocysts, which are not numerous on the tentacles and very 

 scarce on the body, measure o"Oi35 mm. by o'OioS mm. ; their 

 threads appear to be short and rather stout and the cnidocils 

 are short and inconspicuous. 



In diagnosing such specimens it is impossible to come to a very 

 definite conclusion. The species they represent resembles Asper's 

 form, which was found in a Swiss Alpine lake, in its red colour 

 and in the number of its tentacles. Whether H . rhcBtica is speci- 

 fically distinct from H. fusca, lyinn., may, however, be doubted. 

 In any case it appears to be distinct from the only other red 

 form that has received a name, viz., H. rubra, lycwes, which is 

 stated to be a free-living form only found at considerable depths 

 (Roux, Ann. Biol. Lacustre, ii, p. 266, 1907). 



I take this opportunity to add some remarks on the distribu- 

 tion of Hydra in Asia, a certain amount of additional information 

 having become available since I wrote my two papers on the 

 Bengal species {Mem. Asiai. Soc. Bengal, i, 239, 1906, and Journ. 

 Asiat. Soc. Beng.j 1907, p. 27). 



I am indebted to Major J. Stephenson, I. M.S., Professor of 

 Biology, Government College, lyahore, for several specimens taken 

 by him in a small pond in that city. They are well preserved and 

 have, even in spirit, their tentacles considerably longer than their 

 bodies. Several of them bear buds, but no gonads are present. 

 The larger nematocysts, which are far less abundant, especially on 

 the body, than those of H. orientalis, measure 0'0I35 mm. by 

 O'OoSi mm. and are therefore smaller than those of the Bengal form, 

 which measure 0*0189 mm. by 0*190 mm. ; their threads also appear 

 to be shorter and stouter and their cnidocils to be less conspicuous. 

 The colour in spirit is a dirty white. I think that these specimens 

 are identical with the form called Hydra jusca by L^inne. 



Dr. A. Powell, of the Grant College, Bombay, has found a 

 Hydra at Bombay, which differs in its biology from my species, 

 while Capt. H. J. Walton, I. M.S., writes that he has recently taken 

 specimens at Bulandshahr in the United Provinces. These, he says, 

 do not altogether agree with my description of H. orientalis, from 

 which it is very probable that both they and the Bombay form are 

 distinct. 



During a recent visit to Burma (March, 1908)) I found a Hydra, 

 apparently identical with specimens from Calcutta, common in a 

 pond at Mandalay ; while in a small pool near Moulmein, in Lower 

 Burma, I took a single polyp, which was of an '' oil-green" colour 

 and had eight tentacles. None of these specimens showed any sign 

 of sexual activity, but several of the Mandalay examples bore buds. 

 The nematocysts of all agreed with those of H. orientalis, to which 



