708 EDWIN S. GOODRICH. 



In similar sections of a mature male Eteone (figs, 18 and 

 29) it is seen that an opening has been formed at the point 

 of fusion; but the limit of the two different tissues is still 

 quite plainly discernible. A passage has thus been formed 

 for the first time from the coelom into the nephridial canal, 

 allowing the ripe spermatozoa to pass out to the exterior. 



The history of the development of the genital funnel is the 

 same in both sexes, and in all the genera of the Phyllo- 

 docinge I have examined. Some variation occurs with regard 

 to the shape of the fully-formed organ, which appears to be 

 larger and more folded in Eulalia, for instance, than in Eteone 

 (figs. 23 and 18). 



Genital funnels are developed throughout the trunk region, 

 but dwindle, and finally disappear in the anterior segments, 

 where nephridia alone are present (from about the twentieth). 

 There appear to be a few segments in the adult, quite near 

 the head, where the nephridia themselves have disappeared ; 

 as, indeed, is generally the case in Polychsetes. 



Gravier, in his careful account of the anatomy of the Phyl- 

 lodocin^e (13), figured and described their nephridia as simple 

 wide-mouthed organs, opening from the coelom to the exterior 

 and serving as genital ducts. Finding my own results differ 

 so widely from those of M. Gravier, I examined the prepara- 

 tions he had worked at,^ and found that, in fact, he had 

 missed the inner end of the nephridinm, which is very diffi- 

 cult to recognise in fully mature specimens, where the ccelom 

 is filled with genital products and the genital funnel becomes 

 so much enlarged and so closely fused with the nephridial 

 duct. As I had surmised, the large-funnelled "nephridia" 

 described by Gravier are the compound organs formed by 

 the grafting of the genital funnel on the true nephridium 

 (figs. 23 and 24). 



Syllid^. 



My observations on this family of Polychsetes, extending 



1 I am much indebted to M. Gravier for very kindly lending me his sec- 

 tions. 



