312 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. (4) 



" I have seen a specimen from some part of England, Imt 

 cannot give any details [this specimen was seen by Beddard 

 in the Oxford Museum so long ago as 1880, when it was 

 in the possession of the late Prof. Westwood.] There is 

 every possibility that it is a native of this country. 



" The most salient external character of the genus is the 

 long prostomium ; the peculiar form of this is sufficient 

 to prove that Hoffmeister and Grube were dealing with 

 the same worm in their description of Rhynchelmis and 

 Euaxes ; the same kind of prostomium occurs also in the 

 nearly-related genus Sutroa, from North America ; but 

 nothing of the kind is found in any other Lumbricuhd ; in 

 Nais proboscidean however, there is a prostomium of the 

 same character. 



" The Nephridia are, of course, paired structures : they 

 commence in immature individuals in the seventh, in ma- 

 ture individuals in the twelfth segments. The Nephridia 

 become enormously large in proportion to the worm ; they 

 stretch so far back beyond their point of opening that on 

 a superficial inspection each nephridium has the appearance 

 of occupying several segments. The nephridiopores are 

 placed in front of the ventral setee. 



" The Vascular System of Rhynclielmis is described in 

 some detail in \'"ejdovsky's original paper upon the anatomy 

 of the worm ; a figure of some additional particulars is to 

 be found in the ' Entwickelungsgeschichtliche Untersuch- 

 ungen' (PI. xxviii., figs. 7, 8). The dorsal vessel is 

 pulsatile ; it communicates with the ventral vessel by a 

 series of perivisceral trunks, a pair to each segment ; after 

 the eighth segment there are, in addition, a pair of vessels 

 arising from the dorsal trunk, which do not end in the 

 ventral vessel, but give off a number of contractile branches 

 as in other Lumbriculidae ; there are six or eight pairs of 

 these branches, which were confused by Grube with diver- 

 ticula of the gut ; when the worms have attained to sexual 



