328 J. E. BLOMFIELD. 



forming a degenerated tissue much in the same way as the 

 Graafian follicle forms the corpus luteum. 



In a young ampulla formed in this way two kinds of cells 

 are found, the first are large, round, and granular, possessing a 

 large, well-defined nucleus. These are the male ovules ; the 

 second kind are smaller and more irregular and fill up as it 

 were the interstices left between the male ovules. The whole 

 ampulla is continuous wdth the upper part of the cordon de 

 Pfliiger, which becomes its excretory duct. The second kind 

 of cell above mentioned is separable into two categories ; some 

 are prismatic in shape, situated on the basement membrane 

 and squeezed in between the male ovules and obviously 

 form male ovules, thus increasing the number of these bodies 

 and the size of the ampulla, while the others are placed more 

 on the internal surface of the male ovules and are often seen 

 in the act of division, in fact it is by their division that the 

 first few cells of the mulberry-like body soon to be described 

 are produced. 



In a section of an ampulla (fig. 1, a), rather older than the 

 one we have just described, the male ovules, now more 

 properly called sperm-polyplasts, are arranged radially round 

 the periphery of the ampulla ; and but few of the first 

 kind of small cells alluded to above are left, having been 

 converted into male ovules, while the second kind are seen 

 more distinctly conical in shape and placed at the end of the 

 polyplast next to the lumen of the ampulla. The polyplast 

 itself now (fig. 1, b) consists of four, five, or six, the number 

 varying according to age, nuclei arranged radially in a series 

 and terminated by one of these conical cells, ^yhen the activity 

 of this terminal conical coll is as it were exhausted in giving 

 rise to these several cells, the colls themselves comnienco to 

 multiply by division, and thc^ outlines between each ])oly- 

 plast become indistinct from the mutual pressure exerted, but 

 each group is well marked by an elongated nucleus which now 

 comes into prominence at the base of each conical mass (fig. 1, 

 c, w) or polyplast, Avhich is called by Semper the basilar nucleus, 

 and is regarded by him as the first formed nucleus, an observa- 



