346 ALFRED GIBBS BOURNE. 
exceedingly rich network of capillaries forming a perfect net- 
work throughout the lumen; very little, if any, connective 
tissue accompanies these capillaries. The ova lie in the 
meshes, and the whole thing becomes like an exceedingly vas- 
cular solid gland ; the ova, however, remain perfectly free and 
imbibe nutriment, and attain three or four times the size they 
were when they entered the sac. A ripe ovum is about >,°5 
inch in diameter. 
Spermathece, Spermathecal Ducts, and Copulatory 
Pouches.—The spermathece are pear-shaped, and the duct is 
continued from the thin end. They lie attached by mesentery 
to the posterior face of Septum vii-vi11 at the level of the 
cesophagus. The duct held by the mesentery coils a good 
deal, and then penetrates the septum and runs along for a 
considerable distance embedded in the muscle of the septum. 
It never actually passes through into Segment vir. It opens 
into a very small oval pouch, which is itself embedded in the 
body-wall and opens to the exterior. The pouch must serve 
as a copulatory pouch, and may be so styled. 
The spermathecal wall presents a muscular layer immedi- 
ately under-the celomic epithelium, and below this comes the 
spermathecal epithelium. Near the opening of the duct and 
for some little distance inwards the epithelium is composed 
of small columnar cells, but the rest of the epithelium is 
glandular. All the cells appear to be gland-cells, but they are 
long narrow cells; the epithelium in this glandular region is 
about three times as thick as elsewhere. The epithelium of 
the duct is composed of very small cells, outside this is a 
muscular layer. The epithelium of the copulatory pouch is 
composed of rather larger cells, but they are still small and 
not glandular, and it must be remembered that a papilla can 
be protruded here, and when this is done the pouch must 
become a tube as is the case with the atrium. 
I have found in the spermatheca masses of spermatozoa 
and an albuminous-looking mass, secreted doubtless by the 
glandular cells, as there is generally a mass of it up at that end 
of the sac. 
