a new species from the Arctic Seas. 153 



colour, and disposed in perpendicular and transverse rows; 

 but when removed from the ovaria they appear spherical, and 

 their angular appearance on the surface, which has been re- 

 marked in other species, is probably occasioned by the pres- 

 sure of the external coat. When the ova were torn under the 

 microscope, they appeared to consist of a thin vesicle filled with 

 a soft opaque yellow matter. On breaking the ovarium the 

 ova appeared to be disposed in regular concentric layers, and 

 connected together by a glutinous matter. The oviducts are 

 only narrow continuations of the two sacs containing the ova, 

 and after entering the abdomen on the outside of the labia, 

 they open into the bottom of the intestinal canal close to the 

 anus. There is a small white depressed glandular body, with- 

 in the abdominal cavity, placed on each oviduct close to its 

 entrance into the anus or cloaca. It is probable, from the struc- 

 ture of the parts, that the ova, when mature, pass into the 

 abdomen to be discharged by the anus, or by the minute aper- 

 ture anterior to the anus, and that they receive some covering 

 from these white glands as they pass through that part of the 

 oviducts. From analogy and appearance, there can be no 

 doubt that the yellow spherical bodies filling the two pendent 

 ovaria are the ova of this animal ; but it is not yet ascertained 

 whether all the individuals possess these ovaria, or whether 

 there are separate sexes. In the specimen of the L. elongata 

 retained by Dr Brewster, the two ovaria were wanting, but it 

 is very probable that they had fallen off, from their naturally 

 feeble attachment to thebody,and from there being no other per- 

 ceptible difference in their external form and parts. Scoresby 

 likewise has described and represented the ovaria as parts of 

 constant occurrence in this animal. The fixed life of the Ler- 

 ncea would lead us to suppose the sexes united in the same in- 

 dividual. Some of the species live so deeply imbedded in the 

 surface of the animals to which they adhere, that only the 

 ovaria are seen projecting. The internal structure, and the 

 mode of generation of Lerncece^ and even the place which they 

 occupy in the scale of animals are still undetermined. Much 

 light might be thrown on this genus, and many new species 

 discovered by the attentive observation of those annually en- 

 gaged in the whale fisheries in the Greenland seas, where the 



