);Y T. TH( MSoX FLY.ViN, B.SC. 147 



vaginal neck. Tlie presence of these median vaginal 

 necks distinctly marks off the arrangements of the female 

 organs in Sarcopliilus from that of any other de- 

 scribed marsupial. At the time of my last paper 

 I had not seen Van den Brock's paper on the 

 marsupials (3), and did not know that he had 

 already called that portion of the sinus vaginalis (median 

 vaginal apparatus) into which the uterine necks opened, 

 the foimix. In Sarcopliilus the fornix is drawai out on 

 each side into a narrow tube. It had been pointed out 

 (3) that the position of the uterine openings into the 

 median vagina may vary ; fo'- examjDle, in the Didel- 

 phidae the uterine necks penetrate the median vagina from 

 the anterior side, in Phascolomys they are placed at the 

 antero-lateral corners, in Antechinus apicalis quite lateral- 

 ly, while in the Macropods they enter the median vagina 

 from the dorsal side. In Sarcopliilus each uterine neck 

 opens at the apex of a large papilla into each median 

 vaginal neck. This papilla differs from all other niar- 

 sujDials except Phascolomys (3) in having lobed edges. 

 Since this opens into the anterior prolongation of each cul- 

 de-sac, the entry of the uterus is quite from the cranial 

 end, and it can be placed in the same group, therefore, as 

 the Didelphidae. 



Van dcii Broek, who examined a single specimen of 

 Sarcopliilus, but not apparently in detail, says (3, p. 51) : — 

 "Dasyurus ursinus und Antechinus apicalis komnien in der 

 Gestalt ilires Sinus vaginalis Phascolomys schr nalic, doch 

 untcrscheiden sich, besonders Antechinus vom Letztgen- 

 anntcn dadurch, dass die Uteri melir horizontal verlaufen 

 und folglich mehr von der Seite her in den Sinus vaginalis 

 ausmunden."' This statement indicates that Van den 

 Broek had not observed the presence of the median vaginal 

 necks in this genus. 



Morphologically, the median vagina of the virgin 

 differs, from that of the multipaa'a mainly in the fact that 

 the cul-de-sacs are much smaller and considerably shorter. 

 The median vaginal apparatus in Sarcopliilus has a number 

 of peculiar featui'es which mark it off from the similar por- 

 tions of the sexual organs in otner marsupials : it is con- 

 siderably less developed in projjortion to the vaginae than 

 is usual, its shape is irregular, it cannot bs said to be tri- 

 angular, as in the Didclplivdae, nor tongue-like as in Phas- 

 colomys, nor cjdindrical as in Macropods. It retains 

 more than any other — having as it does a complete and 

 strong septum containing muscle fibres — the character of 



