BY WILLIAM A. HASWELL. 547 



tentacles and ridged organ. Its possession is quite as character- 

 istic a feature of the female as the presence of the spadix is of 

 the male. In the male its only representative is a bi-lobed 

 folded body, termed by Yan der Hoeven " cushion-shaped incised 

 bodies." 



Graham Kerr has apparently suggested such a connection for 

 the ridged organ, as will appear from the following quotation 

 from the abstract already referred to — " The curious laminated 

 organ ventral to the buccal mass in the female, which had been 

 believed to be olfactorj^^, was pointed out as probably having some 

 connection with reproduction — apparently being a glandular 

 apparatus to which the spermatophore of the male becomes 

 attached." That the organ has some such function seems to me 

 extremely probable. In the Dibranchiate Cephaloj^ods the 

 hectocotylised arm is so long that it can readily be used as an 

 intromittent organ for depositing the spermatophores in the mantle- 

 cavity of the female. In the Nautilus, how^ever, such intro- 

 mission is impossible, and there must be some indirect mode of 

 transmission of the spermatophores. It seems very probable 

 that the whole inner part of the foot of the female is connected 

 with this function, grasping the spadix and receiving the sperms 

 from the cavities on its honey-combed tentacle. The presence 

 in the wall of the mantle-cavity of the female of a pair of glands 

 which appear to correspond to the nidamental glands of the 

 Dibranchiata, would seem to render it probable that the ova must 

 be fertilized in the mantle-cavity. The function of the laminated 

 area, present only in the female, on the inner surface of the outer 

 tentaculiferous lobe may, perhaps, be to form a brood-pouch for 

 the developing ova. Such a function might be suggested for the 

 inner lobe, were it not that the latter is in close contact with the 

 buccal mass, and thus must be subject to frequent changes of 

 position. 



One of the six or eight female specimens examined by me presents 

 a condition of the median inner tentaculiferous lobe, which may, 

 perhaps, have a bearing on the functions of the part. In this 

 specimen, which was a good-sized one and fully developed in 





