TONGUE OF PERAMELES NASUTA. 77 



on each side of the tongue. The peculiar papillse which every- 

 where surround them always leave a little space immediately 

 round the fungiform papilla, in the centre of which it stands. 

 The shape is shown in fig. S, which is a vertical section through 

 a papilla. The mucous membrane in the centre is of the ordi- 

 nary type, but less dense than that below, from which it is 

 prolonged. 



A large non-meduUated nerve occupies the axis, and is well 

 seen in vertical and horizontal sections. The epithelium re- 

 sembles that of the general surface of the organ, and, like it, is 

 penetrated by papillary upgrowths from the mucous membrane 

 below. 



Taste bulbs are not very common on the fungiform papillae 

 of the higher animals, and seem to be always isolated when 

 they are present. 



It was therefore unlikely that they would be common here, 

 and I examined very many sections without meeting any 

 traces of them. At length I found some indications, and finally 

 the specimen shown in fig. 3. In this section (at the top of the 

 papilla amongst the diagrammatically-shaded epithelium) there 

 are two distinct bulbs of a very low order. They have not yet 

 anything of the bulbous shape, and the basal ends of their cells 

 are spread out over a wide extent of mucous membrane. In 

 this section they do not reach the surface of the epithelium, but 

 it is probable that in a section through the true longitudinal 

 axis the surface may be reached or even perforated. They are 

 seen to be merely the lowest columnar cells of an interpapillary 

 process, greatly prolonged towards the surface, and it is in- 

 teresting to see one or two columnar cells outside the chief 

 mass, in both cases, also elongating and applying themselves to 

 the others. It is also noteworthy that the apex is not pro- 

 duced by any curve of the cells, as in true bulbs, but merely 

 by the cells being prolonged from a curved surface, and so, like 

 radii, meeting at a common centre. Three papillary upgrowths 

 distinctly separate the two developing bulbs from each other 

 and,/rom the surrounding epithelium. 



There were no glands of the " serous type," as far as I 



