LÖNNBERG, ANATOMY OF INDIAN TAPIR. ö 



ber of palatal ridges is said to be only 11 on eitber side.^ 

 The figure of the bard palate of a Sondaic Rbinoceros com- 

 municated by Beddard and Treves appears to indicate a 

 somewhat larger niamber of ridges but the drawing is not 

 sufficiently distinct. There is, however, evidently a consi- 

 derable variation in the number of palatal folds in the vari- 

 ous members of Perissodactyla. 



The length of the tongue of this Tapir is about 27 cm. 

 and the greatest width of the anterior portion is about 5 cm. 

 The anterior third is beset vvith numerous but rather small 

 pa2nUce fungiformes scattered all över; towards the tip they 

 are especially crowded, as well as a t the latera 1 borders. The 

 middle third of the tongue bas no such papillae on its central 

 portion, but only along the sides. On the posterior third 

 of the tongue the fungiform papillae appear again, even in 

 the central portion, and attain there a greater size than else- 

 where. 



In the literature it is generally stated that the Tapir like 

 the Horse is provided with tvvo papillce vallatce only. This 

 statement is probably derived from F. J. C. Mayer's report^ 



in which he says about »Tapirus americanus» — ■ »es sind 



zwei Papillae vallatse zugegen; die Papillse fungiformes sind 



sehr zahlreich». That such a small number does not 



hold good for the Indian Tapir has already been proved by 

 PoELMAN^ who says about the tongue of this animal: »En 



arriére il y a quatre grandes papilles caliciformes» .^ 



In the present specimen there are two such papillae on either 

 side which evidently correspond to those mentioned by Poel- 

 MAN, but in addition to them there are about seven more 

 similar papillse scattered in an irregular transverse series 

 between the lateral pairs (fig. 2). Some of these seven pa- 

 pillse are not, however, quite typical as in some instances 

 the surrounding »wall» is not quite complete but only semi- 

 lunar. Others are, however, just as well developed as the 

 lateral ones. 



In their »Note sur Torgane folie de la langue des Mam- 

 miferes» Boulart and Pilliet^ deny the existence of such 



1 Prol. ZooL Soc. 1873 p. 93. 



'' No v. Act. Acad. Leop. Car. Nat. Cur. T. 20 p. 2 p. 746. 1844. 



^ Mém. de TAcad. R. de Belgique. T. 27. Bruxelles 1853. 



^ Parker 1. c. does not mention anything about papillce vallatce. 



^ Journ. de l'Anat. et Physiol. An. XXI. Paris 1885 p. 342. 



