REPORT ON THE CTRRIPEDIA. 



IV. DARWIN'S " TRUE OVARIA." 



Darwin 1 observed in the Cirripedia two glandular masses resting on the upper edge of 

 the stomach, and touching the cceca where such exist ; these were thought by Cuvier to be 

 salivary glands. They are of an orange colour and form two parallel " gut-formed " masses. 

 Darwin was not able to ascertain whether the two main ovarian ducts coming from the 

 peduncle expanded to envelop these glandular or what the precise connection was. He 

 says " the state of these two masses varied much ; sometimes they were hollow, with only 

 their walls spotted with a few cellular little masses ; at other times they contained or 

 rather were formed of more or less globular or finger-shaped aggregations of pulpy matter ; 

 and lastly, the whole consisted of separate pointed little balls, each with a large inner cell, 

 and this again with two or three included granules. These so closely resembled in 

 general appearance and size the ovigerms with their germinal vesicles and spots, which 

 I have often seen at the first commencement of the formation of the ova in the ovarian 

 tubes in the peduncle, that I cannot doubt that such is their nature. Hence I conclude 

 that these two gut-formed masses are the true ovaria. I may add that several times I 

 have seen in the two long unbranched ducts, connecting the true ovaria and the ovarian 

 tubes in the peduncle, pellets of orange-coloured cellular matter (i.e., ovigerms) forming 

 at short intervals little enlargements in the ducts, and apparently travelling into the 

 peduncle." 



In the second volume of Darwin's Monograph, 2 the same opinion as to the nature of 

 these glandular bodies was given for the sessile Cirripedia. This opinion, however, was 

 not only opposed to that of Cuvier 3 but also to that of Martin-Saint-Ange and of Karsten. 

 Martin- Saint- Ange 4 describes " une espece d'appendice stomacal, un veritable prolongement 

 renfie et bilobe, communiquant avec la premiere cavite de l'estomae par un pedicule etroit 

 et fort court. La structure, la forme generale, la coloration et la disposition mamelonnde 

 de la surface extdrieure de cette partie sont tout a fait semblables a celle de l'estomae, 

 et doivent etre regardees comme faisant partie du meme organe." Martin-Saint-Ange, 

 therefore, cannot be said to have considered these bodies as salivary glands, since he 

 points out in his Memoir as well as in the explanation of the figures that these organs 

 communicate with the stomach. So Darwin's objection " that salivary glands have not 

 been positively recognised in any Crustacean " cannot be considered of any consequence. 



Krohn, 5 describing the direction followed by the oviducts, says that they approach very 



1 Darwin, Lepadida:', 1851, p. 57. 



2 Balanidse, 1854, p. 100. 



3 Cuvier, Memoire sur les animaux ties Anatifes, Mem. Mas. Hist. Nat., t. ii., 1815. 



4 Martin-Saint-Ange, Memoire sur l'organisation des Cirripedes, Mem. Inst. Savans. Strang., t. vi., 1835. 

 '■> Krohn, Ueber d. Cement- und Zeugungsapparat d. Cirripedien, Wicgmann's Archiv, t. xxv., 1859. 



(J500L. CHALL, EXP. — PART XXVIII, — 1884.) ^C 



