_Zoarium._ The whole colony is recumbent but branches freely and at
short intervals in a horizontal plane, so that the zooecia become
crowded together and the branches sometimes overlap one another. The
zoarium often covers a considerable area, but growth seems to be mainly
in two directions. When growing on the stems of water-plants the
branches are often parallel and closely pressed together but remain
recumbent in this position. A stout membrane sometimes extends between
branches and individual zooecia.
_Zooecia._ The walls of the zooecia are thick, stiff, and more or less
darkly but not opaquely pigmented; the external surface, although not
very smooth, is always clean. The two most noteworthy characters of the
zooecia are (i) their truncated appearance when the polypide is
retracted, and (ii) the conspicuous, although often irregular external
annulation of their walls. The tip of each zooecium, owing to the fact
that the invaginated part of the ectocyst is soft and sharply separated
from the stiffened wall of the tube, terminates abruptly and is not
rounded off gradually as is the case in most species of the genus;
sometimes it expands into a trumpet-like mouth. The annulation of the
external surface is due to numerous thickened areas of the ectocyst
which take the form of slender rings surrounding the zooecium; they are
most conspicuous on its distal half. On the dorsal surface of the base
of each zooecium there is a conspicuous furrowed keel, which, however,
does not usually extend to the distal end; the latter is oval in
cross-section. The zooecia are short and broad; their base is always
recumbent, and, when the zoarium is attached to a stone or shell, often
seems to be actually embedded in the support; the distal part turns
upwards and is free, so that the aperture is terminal; the zooecia of
the older parts of the zoarium exhibit the specific characters much more
clearly than those at the growing points.
_Polypide._ The lophophore bears 20 to 30 tentacles, which are long and
slender; the velum at their base extends up each tentacle in the form of
a sharply pointed projection, but these projections do not extend for
more than one-fifth of the length of the tentacles. Both the velum and
the tentacular sheath bear numerous minute tubercles on the external
surface. The base of the stomach is rounded, and the whole of the
alimentary canal has a stout appearance.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--_Plumatella tanganyikæ_ from Igatpuri Lake.
A=outline of part of zoarium from a stone, × 16; B=outline of the tip of
a single zooecium, × 70; C=free statoblast, × 70.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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