_Polypide._ The tentacles number between 40 and 50 and are not festooned at the base. The stomach is slender and elongate.
SYSTEMATIC REMARKS.--_P. fruticosa_ is closely allied to _P. repens_ (European and N. American) but always has much longer statoblasts. Three phases of the species may be distinguished as follows:--
A. (_Forma typica_). Zooecia stout in form, not greatly elongate; free branches produced in profusion.
B. (_P. stricta_, Allman, _P. repens_, van Beneden). Zooecia slender; free branches absent or consisting of two or three zooecia only.
C. (_P. coralloides_, Allman). Vertical zooecia pressed together and greatly elongated.
Indian specimens of the typical form agree well with German specimens labelled by Prof. Kraepelin _P. princeps_ var. _fruticosa_, and specimens of the _coralloides_ phase could hardly be distinguished from similar specimens from Scotland.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.--_P. fruticosa_ is widely distributed in Europe and probably in N. America. I have seen Indian specimens from the Punjab (Lahore, _Stephenson_), from Bombay, from Travancore, from Calcutta and other places in the Ganges delta, from Rajshahi (Rampur Bhoolia) on the R. Ganges, from Kurseong in the E. Himalayas (alt. 4,500 feet), and from Kawkareik in Tenasserim. Statoblasts found on the surface of a pond near Simla in the W. Himalayas (alt. _ca._ 8,000 feet), probably belong to this species.
BIOLOGY.--Allman states that in England _P. fruticosa_ is fond of still and slowly-running water. The typical form and the _coralloides_ phase grow abundantly in the Calcutta tanks, the former often attaining an extraordinary luxuriance. I have found the var. _stricta_ only in water in which there was reason to suspect a lack of minute life (and therefore of food), viz. in Shasthancottah Lake in Travancore, in a swamp in Lower Burma, and in a small jungle stream near the base of the Western Ghats in Travancore. The species is the only one that I have seen in running water in India, and the specimens obtained in the jungle stream in Travancore are the only specimens I have taken in these circumstances. _P. fruticosa_ always grows near the surface or near the edge of water; it is found attached to the stems of bulrushes and other aquatic plants, to floating seeds and logs and (rarely) to stones and bricks. So far as my experience goes it is only found, at any rate in Calcutta, in the cold weather and does not make its appearance earlier than October.