248 WILLIAM BLAXLAND BENHAM. 
and extends back as far as the circumpharyngeal nerve com- 
missure. 
In Pericheta the pharynx is provided with three pairs of 
glands, which open into it, in Moniligaster also there are 
small glands in this region. In other cases, e.g. Urocheta, 
the first pair of nephridia are much modified, their tube en- 
larged and glandular, and the coils are flattened against the 
walls of the pharynx so as to become more or less buried in its 
muscles, but they have no opening into the pharynx. 
The pharynx usually occupies four or five somites, though, 
owing to the somewhat infundibulate septa, it appears to 
occupy more somites. Lumbricus is often described as 
having the pharynx extending through seven somites, whereas 
really it occupies only five. In Pontodrilus it occupies only 
three somites. 
- The esophagus varies much in length, occupying twelve 
somites in Lumbricus (including the exceptional “ proven- 
triculus” of this form) whilst in Eudrilus it only extends 
through two somites. In Digaster, owing to the presence 
of a second gizzard, there is a second cesophagus between 
them. 
In the greater number of genera there are no glands in this 
portion of the alimentary tract; e.g. in Eudrilus, Rhino- 
drilus, Acanthrodilus, Digaster, Perionyx, and others. 
But in Lumbricus there are three pairs of enlargements 
known as “ cesophageal ” or calciferous glands, two being in 
somite x11, the third in somite x11. The two anterior contain 
a milky liquid; the last contains solid carbonate of lime. 
Anteus also possesses “esophageal glands.” But it is 
in Pericheta that the glandular appendices of the alimentary 
tract are most fully developed. Besides the three pairs of 
pharyngeal glands there are three different sorts of glands to 
the cesophagus. In each of the somites, v1, v1, VII, is a pair 
of tufts of glandular tubules. In somite vi there is a pair of 
large ovoid, solid-looking glands, each of which opens by a 
distinct pore into the cesophagus, whilst in somite vir there is 
a pair of grape-like glands. 
