606 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



a corresponding position in xiv, whose identification is at present 

 doubtful) ; the prostates are two long narrow pinkish bodies in 

 segment xviii, each of themseveral inches long when unravelledand 

 straightened out, convoluted and folded transversely with the 

 long axis into a compact flat mass from which anteriorly comes off 

 the genital duct which is fairly long and convoluted and entirely 

 sheathed in a membranous envelope which extends on to and 

 sheaths the prostate also, binding the transverse folds together, 

 and two parallel bands of which in appearance almost like addi- 

 tional but incomplete mesenteries pass to the floor of the seg- 

 ment, the genital ducts lying between them ; no penial setee 

 were met with, nor were the vasa deferentia visible in any part 

 of their course. 



The ovaries occupy the usual position in xiii; the oviducts com- 

 mencing opposite to them in the same segment open to the exterior 

 on the floor of the next one ; the two pairs of spermathecae are 

 in VIII and ix, and each of them presents externally three or four 

 divisions, (1) a short proximal portion or stalk, (2) a middle very 

 much dilated portion (3), a distal much narrower and shorter 

 portion, (in one of the two specimens dissected this portion was not 

 distinguishable), and. (4) a rudimentary rather broad caecum coming 

 off" from the stalk, its tip slightly serrate with four or five minute 

 notches. 



Mesenteries : the first ten complete mesenteries from the poste- 

 rior one of segment iv to the posterior one of xiil are enormously 

 thickj their anterior faces rather deeply concave, in contracted 

 worms overlapping like a pile of saucers or cups, braced together 

 and to the body wall by strong bands ; the next two or three are 

 a trifle thicker than those which follow, which are thin and trans- 

 par-ent. 



There are nine pairs of transverse hearts, the last pair in xiii, 

 those of this and the preceding two or three pairs commencing 

 superiorly by two narrow trunks, one from the dorsal vessel, and 

 one from a supra-intestinal vessel. 



