The Maturation of the Ovum in the Cape and 
New Zealand Species of Peripatus. 
By 
Lilian Sheldon, 
Bathurst Student, Newnham College, Cambridge. 
With Plates I, II, III. 
DerscrRIPTION OF MATERIAL. 
THE species of which I had the most complete supply is 
Peripatus capensis, and consequently I have been able to 
obtain a more satisfactory account of the events attending the 
maturation of the ovum in it than in either of the other two. 
The material consisted of ovaries taken from females in July, 
September, October, December, January, and March. During 
April females were killed almost every day, and both the ovary 
and the eggs in the uterus were preserved, so that I havea 
large number of ova before the beginning of the segmentation. 
The supply of P. Balfouri is smaller, but of that species also 
there was a fair number of pre-segmentation ova preserved 
during April. 
Of P. nove-zealandize I have a much smaller supply. 
It consists of a few ovaries of July, April, December, and 
January, and some unsegmented ova taken from the uterus in 
December. 
The specimens were preserved in various ways, and the 
results obtained in all the methods were the same. My work 
was done entirely on sections, of which it was easy to obtain 
VOL, XXX, PART 1.—NEW SER. A 
