322 Anatomical Notes on Sutroa Alpcstris. [zoe 



erect, cylindrical in shape, about eighteen inches in diameter, and 

 quite bare, either from the natural decadence of the leaves, or pos- 

 sibly from their removal by fires. They consist ot an interlaced 

 mass of coarse fibers, similar to the roots, of which they are prop- 

 erly a part. There is, of course, no exterior covering. Seen from 

 a little distance one of these short stout shafts, topped with its crown 

 of long leaves; might be easily mistaken for some aborescent yucca. 

 As the places in which these tree-like sedges grow are not sub- 

 ject to overflows which might induce such a growth by changes of 

 water-level, their upward prolongation must be a natural growth, 

 added to as each successive crop of foliage surmounts the previous 



one. 



NEW 



OLIGOCH^TE 



VADA, CALIFORNIA. 



BY GUSTAV EISEN- 



During a visit to Donner Lake, in the Sierra Nevada, I found a 

 new Lumbriculide worm greatly resembling Rhynchelmis and Sutroa, 

 as regards external characteristics. An anatomical 'study of the 

 worm proved it to belong to the genus Sutroa, but in many import- 

 ant points differing from the only species, Sutroa rostratay hitherto 

 described.^ 



This new species is in many respects interesting, proving, as it 

 does, the genus Sutroa to be well defined from Rhynchelmis. It 

 further gives us a new insight into the generic and specific char- 

 acteristics, which necessarily must remain more or less obscure, as 

 long as only one single species is known. 



A study of this new species has enabled me to decide several 

 obscure anatomical points, such as the position of the testes and 

 the ovaries, and the nature of those organic masses which have been 

 formerly mistaken for these reproductive organs. 



The genus Sutroa appears to take the place on this coast ol the 

 old world genus Rhynchelmis, which it resembles in general ap- 



*On the anatomy of Sutroa rostrata, a new annelid of the family Lumbriculina, 

 !>y Gi.stav Eisen. Memoirs California Academy of Sciences, Vol. H, No. i, San 

 1 rancisco, Jan. i88S, 



