58 MULLER ON THE MALE OF 



varied from an inch to more than half an inch (1 bis uber ^''), 

 The fibrous tissue of which the lobe consists is contractile, and 

 frequently moves very vivaciously by itself. In the yet attached 

 Hectocotyli the lobe was in the same way more or less developed, 

 and was wanting only in the smallest specimen. This is un- 

 favourable to the view that the lobe is a residue of the torn sac ; 

 which might otherwise suggest itself, especially since the strong 

 resistant epithelium which externally coats the appendage is 

 absent upon the lobe. The edges of the lobe were generally 

 smooth and did not appear torn. 



Of the tentacular cirrhi which Costa (/. c. fig. 2" e and/) de- 

 picts at the anterior end of the Hectocotylus, I could never find 

 any trace, and I am inclined to believe that they were some ac- 

 cidentally adhering foreign bodies, since nothing could be lost 

 or torn away, in the Hectocotyli otherwise perfect, which were 

 taken out of the sac. 



Such specimens as the latter are also important for the deter- 

 mination of the interpretation which is to be put upon the 

 dorsal pigmented capsule * and the position of the appendix in 

 it. Kolliker has called this capsule the capsule of the testis ; — 

 inasmuch as in one specimen he saw the filiform appendage 

 enter it through a cleft in the back, and become connected 

 therein with a coil of seminal canals, to which he gave the name 

 of ^ testis.^ I believe that the presence of semen there is acci- 

 dental, and that another interpretation must be given to the 

 position of the appendage. It has been already stated, that 

 there exists no capsule in the Hectocotyli while still included 

 in the sac ; the appendage is always free, and nothing is to be 

 seen of any seminal canals. In the free Hectocotyli the capsule 

 was indeed always formed, but in many instances it was quite 

 empty, the appendage also lying outside it. In other cases the 

 appendage passed, in the manner depicted by Kolliker (pi. 1. 

 fig. 9 and pi. 2. fig. 17)^ through the cleft of the dorsal ridge 

 into the pigmented capsule, but lay free therein, no seminal 

 canals being present. 



* The chroma tophora here exhibit in free Hectocotyli the same movements 

 as elsewhere. The radial muscular fibres are clearly recognizable, contracted 

 or relaxed according as the chromatophora appear large or small. Muscular 

 fibres are also found in the deeper layers of the cutis in Hectocotyli as else- 

 where among the Cephalopoda, e, g, in the dorsal ridge. 



