253 



RUCKER. 



[VOL. I. 



IP 



'8v* 



two-thirds of which are comparatively thin walled and lined 

 with ciliated cells, while the last third has a non-ciliated epi- 

 thelial lining and very thick muscular wall. This thick-walled 

 portion terminates in an enlarged sack which might well be 

 called the spermatophore sack, since it holds a spermatophore 

 in nearly all the specimens examined. The sack opens on the 

 exterior by means of the generative orifice between the 



penultimate pair 

 of legs. 



The portion 

 of the vas def- 

 erens possessing 

 the thick muscu- 

 lar wall does not 

 constitute the 

 spermatophore 

 maker, as Mose- 

 ly found in /*. 

 N. Zealandiae, 

 but it is the thin- 

 walled portion 

 which has this 

 function, though the epithelium is ciliated in that region. 



Fig. 8 is a partially diagrammatic drawing of the male 

 reproductive organs of Peripatus Eisenii. The vas deferens 

 from c to its termination has a thick muscular wall. From y 

 to d and thence back to c the wall is comparatively thin, and 

 the lining cells are at the same time ciliated and secretory. 

 Especially active are the cells of that portion which begins at 

 about s and ends at d. Here the most substantial portion of 

 the spermatophore is made. In secretion great balls of a glu- 

 tinous substance staining dark in haematoxylin are formed in 

 the inner cells and given off. They become packed into the 

 spermatophore rod in the most regular manner, making its sur- 

 face appear to be marked off in regular hexagons, not indicated 

 in my drawing. This rod receives lighter secretions as it 

 passes along, carrying before it a packet of spermatozoa around 

 which it becomes very much coiled in the dilated distal portion 



a 



FIG. 9. 



