84 



Memoirs of the Indian Museum. 



[Vol. V, 



c-.m/- 



(fig. 4) and cover the whole of the anterior two-thirds of the column. Towards the 

 posterior extremity they gradually disappear and in some specimens are scanty if 



not altogether absent between the 

 sphincter and the disk. On the 

 anterior part of the body they are 

 arranged in vertical rows. 



The sphincter (pi. vii, fig. 2) 

 consists of numerous strands, 

 most of which are somewhat 

 elongate in vertical section. They 

 are grouped in a band-like figure, 

 usually with a few that are shor- 

 ter than the rest lying separated 

 in the mesogloea, to which layer 

 the whole muscle is confined. 

 The muscle extends outwards in 

 an oblique direction from near 

 the base of the endoderm into an 

 external annulus produced by a 

 thickening of the mesogloea. The 

 circular muscle-sheath is not in- 

 terrupted in this region. 



The internal structure of P. 



Fig. 4. — Phytocoeles chilkaeus, sp. nov. 



Transverse section of the column in the lower part of the 

 stomodaeum ; from a highly contracted specimen. 

 cm. = circular muscle. 



chilkaeus very closely resembles that of P. gangeticus. The body-wall appears to be 

 as a rule thicker in the former, but this is due partly to the fact that it is more 

 highly constricted in the specimens examined. When it is not contracted there is 

 comparatively little difference. 



Large specimens of P. chilkaeus, with the column constricted and elongated, 

 are about 22 mm. in length and 4 mm. in diameter. 



Type-specimens. No. 6803/7, Z.B.V. Ind. Mus. : from Rambha Bay, Chilka 

 Lake. 



P. chilkaeus has as yet been found only in the Chilka Lake, but in both the outer 

 channel and the main area. The only localities in which it was obtained were the 

 head of Rambha Bay and the channel between Satpara and Mahosa. The actual 

 specific gravity of the water in which it was taken varied from about 1-0105 at 

 Rambha to 1-0265 at Satpara. It was collected in January and March. 



At Rambha the anemones were found either floating a few inches below the 

 surface or with their aboral disks lightly attached to a filmy alga that grows luxuri- 

 antly on mud in very shallow water. Off Satpara they were brought up from a 

 muddy bottom overgrown with weeds in about 12 feet of water. To judge from 

 their muddy bases they had been attached to the roots of the weeds. The aboral 

 extremity was contracted and cylindrical in these specimens, expanded in those 

 from Rambha. The examples from Rambha were taken in January and March ; 



