150 NERVE COMPONENTS OF BONY FISHES, 



tion with the trigeminal branch with which they are 

 distributed. 



After giving off the last two branches the r. mandib- 

 ularis VII continues forward along the outer surface of 

 the symplectic and almost immediately divides into a ven- 

 tral bundle composed exclusively of very coarse fibres and 

 a smaller dorsal bundle of very fine fibres with a few of 

 medium size. These bundles become quite widely 

 separated, a few fibres of the m. adductor mandibulse 

 lying between them. The ventral bundle comes to lie in 

 a deep groove in the symplectic toward the cephalic end 

 of the latter, which finally becomes a closed canal, while 

 the dorsal bundle enters a separate canal lying farther 

 dorsally and bounded by the symplectic, the mesoptery- 

 goid and the quadrate. The dorsal bundle almost imme- 

 diately emerges on the mesal side of the bones and 

 continues cephalad along the inner face of the quadrate ; 

 but the ventral division runs much farther cephalad in its 

 canal, a process of the symplectic containing the canal 

 running forward along the inner face of the quadrate to 

 receive it. It also finally emerges on the inner face of 

 the quadrate and here the two bundles re-unite (290). 

 From this point cephalad the two bundles run along the 

 inner face of the quadrate in contact but without mingling 

 of fibres and in this relation several very fine ramuli (not 

 shown on the plots) are given off from the finer bundle to 

 the mucous lining of the mouth immediately adjacent to 

 the nerve trunk. No taste buds can be found in this 

 region, nor is the epithelium so glandular as in the corre- 

 sponding region overlying the hyoid bones and supplied 

 by the third branch of this nerve. 



Farther forward, along the inner side of the articular 

 and dentary bones, the coarse and fine-fibred bundles are 



