82 Mt^LLER ON THE MALE OP 



rian capsule, and may have been a result of some accident to the 

 Hectocotylus. 



The state of polygamy in which many females of these Cepha- 

 lopods live is worthy of remark. Cuvier (Laurillard) found three 

 Hectocotyli in the mantle of an Octopus ; Kolliker, among twelve 

 Hectocotyli of the Tremoctopus, once found three together^ and 

 twice, two ; Von Siebold found among three, two together ; I 

 among eighteen found four together once, and three times, two 

 upon one specimen. 1 also met with two Hectocotyli upon one 

 Argonaut, twice. 



Since it is improbable that the Hectocotyli can pass from one 

 female to another, either the number of the males must be 

 greater than that of the females, or many of the latter must alto- 

 gether despair of the society of the former. On the other hand, 

 it seems that the many Hectocotyli for one female are ovk aTrO" 

 (jxokLot, as Homer says of the evval aOavdrcov. In the oviduct 

 of one Tremoctopus were found two distinct, but for the rest 

 almost identical seminal masses, each with its appended tubular 

 filament, and many such fragments appeared to indicate some- 

 thing more than bigamy. 



This is perhaps connected with the manner in which at least 

 a portion of the Cephalopoda here referred to lay their eggs. 

 The ova of Tremoctopus and Argonaut a are, it is well known, 

 found in groups, each of which is attached to a delicate stalk. 

 These stalks are in the Argonaut fastened to the convoluted por- 

 tion of the shell ; in Tremoctopus to a principal stem some lines 

 thick. The ova of each such single group are as a rule at about 

 the same stage of development ; whilst the different groups vary 

 so greatly, that in the larger bunches we frequently meet fresh- 

 laid ova in company with perfect embryos. In this case a re- 

 gular progression may frequently be detected, so that develop- 

 ment gradually advances from one end to the other of the whole 

 bunch. In one bunch of ova of Tremoctopus there was further- 

 more this distinction between the two ends of the principal 

 stem : that the end which carried the most fully-developed em- 

 bryos had a brownish, wrinkled, old appearance ; while that in 

 which the ova were undeveloped was clearer, smoother, softer, 

 and fresh-looking. Between the two were transition-states. 

 The size of each group which has a distinct thinner stalk answers 



