BIHANG TILL K. SV. VET.-AKAD. HANDL. BAND 27. AFD. IV. NIO 6. 21 



All the specimens caught late in tlie autumn presented their 

 bundles of genital tubes as comparatively small and unripe. 



In order to gain an exact idea of the developmental pro- 

 cess of the reproductive bundles, it is most snitable to make 

 a careful examination of the foremost part of the geni- 

 tal basis, just at the place where the minute club-shaped pro- 

 minences are situated. In their earliest state of development, 

 they present themselves as very insignificant protuberances 

 on the base of the efferent duct and its germinal cord just 

 where these enter the genital basis (comp. the wood-cut on 

 page 19). The protuberances grow larger, and gradually 

 acqviire the shape of minute nails with narrow bases and 

 enlarged ends or heads. They take first the form of a mush- 

 room and, finally, they change into clubs with double heads, 

 the first trace of dichotomous branches or tubes. In some- 

 what older bundles the stem has grown longer and the bran- 

 ches have becorae doubled but still remain very short, each 

 bundle having the aspect of a bunch of grapes (comp. the 

 wood-cuts on page 20). The f urther increase is easily under- 

 stood, and does not need to be given in further detail here. 



In 1899, Bördas^ published a paper on the reproductive 

 organs in some Holothurids. Thus, he describes in Holothu- 

 ria impatiens Gmel. a series of minute tubes disposed ante- 

 riorly close to the efferent duct. He says: "Les plus anté- 

 rieurs sont courts, cylindriques et renflés ä leur extrémité 

 libre. Les uns afPectent la forme d'un clou, les autres celle 

 d'un champignon et enfin d'autres celle d'une massue. Tout 

 prés de ces tubes en existent d'autres de couleur blanchåtre, 

 cylindriques et ramifiés". He considers these tubes to be quite 

 different in form and structure from the true genital tubes and 

 insists on the point that they are glands "organes glandulaires" 

 secerning a clear transparent fluid having for function the di- 

 lution of the genital products. Nevertheless, on page G he 

 writes: "On pourrait peut-étre aussi les considérer comme des 

 tubes génitaux atrophiés" and, moreover, on page 8 he gives 

 them the name "glandes annexes tubuleuses" and, furthermore, 

 on page 7, he adjoins the following sentence: "Sur son bord 

 antérieur viennent se fixer les tubes ä fonctions problémati- 

 ques que nous venons de signaler (glandes tubuleuses, canaux 



^ Recherches sur les organes de la generation de quelques Holothuries. — 

 Annales de la Faculté des scienees de Marseille. IX, IV (extract). 



