The Colnmclla Auris in Amphibia. 593 



fitting into the fenestra) and articulated with a Pharyngohyal,^^ 

 consisting of cartilage. This is, of course, incorrect, due to the 

 inadequacy of the method of gross dissection, upon which he based 

 his conclusions. 



From the caudal edge of the palatoquadrate a rather delicate 

 process of cartilage extends back to the ceratohyal to which it is 

 applied, curving slightly over its upper surface. The name of 

 Epihyal which Parker gave to this process of the quadrate is like- 

 wise certainly incorrect. Cope ('88) has termed this the "Hyo- 

 suspensorial cartilage;" it might more correctly be called Processus 

 hyoideus palatoquadrati, since an articulation with the quadrate 

 as described by him is not found. In other respects the description 

 of Cope is essentially correct. Wiedersheim, likewise, describes the 

 squamosal connection of the stilus and the position of the facial nerve 

 correctly, though he apparently overlooked the condition here in the 

 general portion of his paper. 



Larval Crypiohranclius. Serial sections were made through the 

 head of four Cryptobranchus larvse whose lengths were, respectively, 

 28 mm., 34 mm., 45 mm., and one just hatched. Since in these series 

 the morphological relations are in all essentials the same, it will be 

 sufficient for the purposes of this paper to describe briefly the rela- 

 tions in the one which is of intermediate size (34 mm.), and sup- 

 plement this with comments on some interesting features in the 

 youngest, — the newly hatched larva. 



The columella in this larva (34 mm.) consists of a roughly oval 

 plate of cartilage resting upon the membrane closing the fenestra 

 vestibuli. From the cartilaginous border of the fenestra the colum- 

 ella is separated by the membrane everywhere except at the cephalic 

 edge where it articulates with the cartilaginous ear capsule at the 

 crista semicircularis. In larvse 28 mm. and 45 mm. long, the 

 fenestral plate does not come into articular relation with the carti- 



"Parker in his earlier paper ('76, pp. 559 and 587) referred to this cartilage 

 as liomologous with the elasmobranchian "Spii'acular cartilage" and the 

 annulus tympanicus of the Frog, the facial nerve passing below it. In the 

 second paper, however, in vi^hich he terms it a pharyngohyal, the facial nerve 

 is described as passing over it. 



