381 



at the base of the detached arm does not contain the testicle, 

 with its excretory and ejacuUitory ducts and penis, as supposed 

 by Koelliker and Von Siebold ; these organs are situated in the 

 usual position of other male Cephalopods; the seminal appa- 

 ratus, or spermatophore, formed in the internal organs, is trans- 

 planted from the respiratory cavity into the sac at the base of 

 the Hectocotyliform arm ; which, being thus charged, is detached 

 periodically from its pedicle, and attaches itself to the female, 

 probably during the act of copulation, which is known to take 

 place between other Cephalopods ; by means of its suckers it 

 creeps to the female genital openings, where the spermatophore 

 fulfils its mission. 



H. Miiller,* in a paper on this subject, observes : " It is then 

 proved that the Hectocotylus is formed on a male Argonauta, 

 and is nothing but an arm metamorphosed in a very irregular 

 manner." This is certainly a very curious fact, occurring in a 

 class of animals whose reproduction takes place in the usual way 

 in most of its genera, but in these few in strange contradiction 

 with the supposed established laws of Zoology. 



The fossil Aptychus, which is now admitted to be the internal 

 shell of a Cephalopod, receives some illustration from the de- 

 velopments in regard to Hectocotylus. Von Siebold {op. cit. 

 p. 274) says that, if the relations of the latter to certain Octo- 

 pods be borne in mind, the idea of Alexander Braun, that the 

 Aptychus may have been the male of certain Arnmonites, merits 

 consideration. If they be considered abortive males, sheltering 

 themselves in the mantle of the females, this would explain why 

 they are so often found at the base of the first chamber of 

 Ammonites. It is also possible that the fragment of a Mollusk, 

 found by Quoy and Gaimard at the Celebes Islands,t may be 

 the Hectocotylus of the long-sought male of Nautilus pompiliiis. 



Dr. J. N. Borland presented a specimen of Scaphiopiis 

 solitarins, Holbrook, a reptile comnaon to Alabama and 

 Tennessee, but, until recently, almost unknown here. 

 The specimen was taken by Prof. Jeffries Wyman, from 



*■ Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Tome 16, 1852, p. 132,. Paris, 

 t Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Tome 20, 1830, p. 470, Paris. 



