26O JOHANNA M. DIECKMANN. 



diverticulum caudally, to the opening of the spermathecal tube 

 cephalicly, or approximately between the levels of Figs. 4 and 5 

 indicated on the sagittal section (Fig. n). The glands are 

 tubular in form and somewhat tortuous. Their epithelium is of 

 the mucous-secreting type. Their narrow ducts open into the 

 ventral and lateral walls of the cloaca, both on the summits of 

 and between folds. 



In addition to these functional glands, a group of rudimentary 

 glands is found, opening into the mid-dorsal slit, caudal to the 

 spermatheca. These are inconstant and variable in number. 

 They are sometimes absent; sometimes only a single tubule is 

 found on one side, or there may be three or four pairs. 



The epithelium of the cloaca is a stratified squamous just 

 inside of the vent, throughout the caudal portion of the cloaca, 

 in the dorsal diverticulum, and on the elevation as far forward 

 as the opening of the spermatheca. This gives way to a stratified 

 cuboidal epithelium, which is two layers deep on the ventral 

 wall of the cloaca opposite the spermathecal tube, and three 

 or four layers on the elevation, in the median slit, and in the 

 cephalic expansion of the cloaca. This stratified epithelium, 

 in turn, gives way in the gut to a tall columnar variety with 

 goblet cells, and in the bladder to a simple cuboidal. 



A comparison of the cloaca of Gyrinophilus with that of other 

 forms, relates it most closely to Eurycea and the Plethodons. 

 Eurycea, though lacking the diverticulum, has the dorsal elevation 

 divided into two limbs with the median dorsal slit between 

 them; and the Plethodons, in which species the elevation has no 

 dorsal slit but is single throughout, have the dorsal diverticulum. 

 In Plethodon glutinosus, this diverticulum extends forward above 

 (dorsal to) the spermathecal region in my specimen. Kingsbury 

 describes it as of considerable extent. 



The Spermatheca in Adults. The spermatheca, or sperm- 

 storing organ, definitely associated in urodeles with internal 

 fertilization, is, in Gyrinophilus, a complex structure, located 

 dorsal to the cloaca, and consisting of a branched common tube 

 and numerous smaller tubules. The common tube, constricted 

 slightly near its mouth, and pointing almost directly dorsad 

 from its opening between the limbs of the dorsal elevation, 



