342 A. M Verrill — North American Cephalopods. 



position, on the left side, as the terminal part of the oviduct of the 

 female. It is, however, a much more slender tube, extending farther 

 forward beyond the base of the gill, and its orifice is small and simply 

 bilabiate. It extends backward, over the dorsal side of the base of the 

 gill, to a bilobed, long-pyriform organ, consisting of a spermatophore- 

 sac {ss) and a complicated system of glands and ducts {pr, vd), 

 united closely together and enclosed in a special sheath ; in these the 

 spermatophores are formed. These organs consist of the following 

 parts : 



1. The vas-deferens (vd), which starts posteriorly from a small 

 orifice (not figured) in the thin sheath of peritoneal membrane (pt) 

 investing the testicle (t); it passes forward along the side of the 

 spermatophore-sac, to which it is closely adherent, and thi-oughout 

 most of its length it is thrown into numei'ous close, short, transverse, 

 flattened folds ; anteriorly it joins the vesiculai-seminales. 



2. The vesiculse-seminales (fig. 2, pr, in part) consist of three large 

 curved vesicles, closely coiled together, and having thickened, gland- 

 ular walls ; the first two are short and broad, the third is elongated ; 

 from the latter goes a short duct, which unites with the duct from the 

 prostate gland to form the spermatic duct. 



3. The prostate gland (pr, in part) is broad-ovate and consists of 

 two rounded lobes, one large and the other small, which are closely 

 united to and enclosed between the vesiculae-seminales. 



4. The spermatic duct, formed by the union of the ducts from the 

 vesicuLie-seminales and prostate glands, is a nearly straight tube ; 

 it passes backward between the prostate glands and spermatophore- 

 sac, close alongside of the vas-deferens (vd), to which it is closely 

 bound down ; it enters the spermatophore-sac (ss) nehv its posterior end, 

 at an acute angle. Even at its origin it contains spermatophores. 



5. The spermatophore-sac (ss) is a long, capacious, pyriform or 

 somewhat fusiform, thin-walled sac, pointed at its posterior end; its 

 anterior end is directly continuous with the long efferent duct (p), 

 which is often rather wide at its origin, but tapers to a narrow ante- 

 rior end. The terminal orifice is slightly bilabiate. 



These organs receive blood through a special artery (fig. 2, po) 

 which arises from the posterior aorta just back of the heart. After 

 reaching the genital organs it divides into several branches : one 

 goes forAvard along the side of the efferent duct ; one to the pros- 

 tate glands and vesiculse-seminales; one to the vas-deferens and 

 adjacent parts. 



Specimens taken in May, in the breeding season, have the efferent 



