The free statoblasts of _Plumatella_ are as a rule set free before the cells they contain become differentiated, and float on the surface of the water for some time before they germinate; but occasionally a small polypide is formed inside the capsule while it is still in its parent zooecium. I have, however, seen only one instance of this premature development, in a single statoblast contained in a small zoarium of _P. fruticosa_ found in Lower Burma in March. The fixed statoblasts usually remain fixed to the support of the zoarium, even when their parent-zooecium decays, and germinate _in situ_.
The larva (fig. 40 C, p. 207) that originates from the egg of _Plumatella_ is a minute pear-shaped, bladder-like body covered externally with fine vibratile threads (cilia) and having a pore at the narrow end. At the period at which it is set free from the parent zooecium it already contains a fully formed polypide or pair of polypides with the tentacles directed towards the narrow end. After a brief period of active life, during which it moves through the water by means of its cilia, it settles down on its broad end, which becomes adhesive; the polypide or pair of polypides is everted through the pore at the narrow end, the whole of this end is turned inside out, and a fresh polyparium is rapidly formed by budding.
29. Plumatella fruticosa, _Allman_. (Plate III, fig. 1; plate IV, fig. 4; plate V, fig. 1.)
_Plumatella fruticosa_, Allman, Ann. Nat. Hist. xiii, p. 331 (1844).
_Plumatella repens_, van Beneden (? _nec_ Linné), Mém. Acad. Roy. Belg. 1847, p. 21, pl. i, figs. 1-4.
_Plumatella fruticosa_, Johnston, Brit. Zooph. (ed. 2), p. 404 (1847).
_Plumatella coralloides_, Allman, Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1850, p. 335.
_Plumatella stricta_, _id._, Mon. Fresh-Water Polyzoa, p. 99, fig. 14 (1857).
_Plumatella fruticosa_, _id._, _ibid._ p. 102, pl. vi, figs. 3-5.
_Plumatella coralloides_, _id._, _ibid._ p. 103, pl. vii, figs. 1-4.
_Plumatella repens_ and _P. stricta_, Carter, Ann. Nat. Hist. (3) iii, p. 341 (1859).
_Plumatella lucifuga_, Jullien (_partim_), Bull. Soc. zool. France, x, p. 114 (1885).
_Plumatella princeps_ var. _fruticosa_, Kraepelin, Deutsch. Süsswasserbryozoen, i, p. 120, pl. vii, fig. 148 (1887).