48 TLLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS {48 
Cryptobranchus, but the now intimate association of the former with the 
nasal capsule indicates that the Caecilian probably is far removed from 
ancestral conditions. 
Epicrium is more like Amphiuma, of all Urodeles, although differing 
greatly from it. The greater similarity lies in the origin of the planum 
verticale from the median line of the basale and in the subsequent develop- 
ment of the alary processes which, in the later stages of both, partially 
cover the dorsal surface of the nasal sac. Further similarity lies in the 
modification of the cornu trabeculae which in both, forms the floor of the 
capsule, uniting the planum basale to the lower margin of the lamina 
externa, and partially supporting the nasal organ. 
On the other hand, the parallel rods of cartilage which in Epicrium form 
the lateral wall of the capsule anterior to the solum nasale, uniting anter- 
iorly with the alary process to form a partial vault, do not exist in Amphi- 
uma, where the united elements of cornu and lamina externa expand into 
an oblique circumnarial ring. Further, the antorbital process of Amphiuma 
never unites to the capsule as in Epicrium, nor at any stage does a complete 
columna ethmoidalis exist in the latter form, so that there are many 
contrasts between the capsules of the two. Thus upon the evidence 
submitted by the nasal capsules, the position of Cope or Sarasin can not 
be supported, all conditions pointing to the complete separation of the 
Gymnophiona from the Anura or the Urodela. 
