96 Proceedings of tJte Royal Society of Victoria. 



glands present in Rodentia, point to an affinity with the lower 

 Mammals. Further, he finds a great glandular development to 

 be typical of large forms, e.g., Lepus and Trichosurus. Here we 

 have such in a small form. Here, doubtless, the numerous glands 

 opening into the lumen of Jacobson's Organ are associated with 

 the great amount of glandular material covering the septum, and 

 the turbinal ridges, as is also the remarkable development of 

 glands in connection with the degenerate eye : though I do not 

 consider that, in the case of Jacobson's Organ, this great secre- 

 tory power is necessarily developed at the expense of the sensory 

 function, as in the eye — since we find in Jacobson's Organ here 

 consistently with Broom's generalisation that the Organ is 

 more highly developed in small forms than in large — it is in 

 Notoryctes well developed, occupying fully two-thirds, and in 

 parts the whole, of the cai'tilaginous trough in which it lies. 



Conclusion. 

 It would seem then from the evidence of Jacobson's Organ, that 

 we are justified in claiming for the Polyprotodont Notoryctes, that, 

 while it still has traces of a Monotreme relationship, it shows a 

 close affinity with the Diprotodonts by way of Aepyprymnus and 

 Petauruis, and also, though at a much greater distance, with the 

 Edentates and Rodents. It thus adds its measure of confirmation 

 to the position given by Broom, as doubtful as yet, to the 

 Rodentia in his classification of the Mammalian groups, in which 

 he classes the Edentates and Rodents under one group, the 

 Archaeorhinata. It, pari passu with this, adds its testimony to 

 that of the muscular system, which has been held by Professor 

 Wilson,^ to show " enduring evidences of a real, if distant, 

 morphological kinship " with that of the Edentates. 



Part II. 



Blood Vascular System. 



This system, while not showing so far many special points 



having a general significance, has still a number of interesting 



conditions which are well worthy of record, in addition to the 



1 Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Au?., 1894, p. 5. 



