542 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



which do not being probably silicious grains of sand taken in with 

 the food. In segments xiii and xiv the oesophageal walls are less 

 glandular and thick. The septum between the two gizzard seg- 

 ments is usually wanting. 



The supra-intestinal blood-vessel and the dorsal surface of the 

 alimentary canal from the pharynx backwards but more conspi- 

 cuously in the intestinal region, are coated, just as in European 

 species, with the brownish-yellow issue formerly termed hepatic. 



Of the male organs I am able at present to give only a pre- 

 liminary and unsatisfactory account, as I have had for dissection 

 only winter worms whose organs are in a functionally inactive 

 condition; and it will be necessary for their complete understanding 

 to dissect a more perfect series of animals in various stages of 

 growth, than I have yet been able to do. The condition 

 than I have met with in well-grown worms with fully developed 

 clitella is as follows. In the 11th and 12th segments, when 

 a worm is opened from the dorsal aspect, there are visible two 

 pairs of conspicuous white masses lying above the intestine, 

 those of each pair touching in the median line. But in addition to 

 these, there are two other pairs of bodies of very similar appear- 

 ance and structure, but of very much smaller size ; so that 

 in these worms, in the condition met with with, the vesiculse 

 seminales, or seminal reservoirs are of a fourfold character. 

 The anterior pair of these lie in segment ix, and are attached 

 to the anterior face of the mesentery between segments ix 

 and x ; the transverse " hearts " in this segment lie between 

 them and the intestine, and the segmental organs lie in front 

 of them. The second pair occupy a similar position in the 

 10th segment. The bodies of both pairs are quite separate from 

 each other, smooth, somewhat flat or cylindrical, and not divided 

 into lobes. The bodies in segments xi and xn are very much 

 larger, slightly bi- or tri-lobed, with the surface not smooth but 

 rather somewhat lobulate, and those of each pair apparently quite 

 independent of each other, and attached by a stalk to the 

 posterior faces of the mesenteries between segments x and xi, and 



