CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANATOMY OF EARTHWORMS. 463 
Their arrangement in the three species mentioned above 
seems to indicate that they will, when better known, serve as 
a means of discriminating the species of this genus, which are 
already very numerous. 
The restriction of these glands to the neighbourhood of the 
spermatheca and vasa deferentia pores, is an indication that 
they are concerned with the reproductive functions. 
The descriptions of the cocoon and embryos in exotic 
Lumbricide, although limited to Megascolex ccruleus 
(Beddard, 8), and Megascolides australis (Spencer, 37), 
seem to indicate that there is no great difference between 
these types and our indigenous Lumbricide. The cocoon 
membrane is now generally admitted to be a product of the 
clitellar glands ; the albuminous fluid in which the ova are 
embedded seems to be formed by the capsulogenous glands 
(“ Hiweissdriisen ”’) in the Lumbricide, and in such forms as 
Rhynchelmis. Spencer has, however, suggested that this 
substance in the cocoon of Megascolides is, probably, in 
part at least, coelomic fluid. I confess myself unable to agree 
with Professor Spencer as to the likelihood of the ccelomic 
fluid being used for such a purpose, though, at the same time, 
it is very possible that, during the formation of the cocoon, 
some celomic fluid might be accidentally squeezed out of the 
dorsal pores and included within the cocoon. Spencer’s 
statements, in fact, do not really imply more than this, as I 
read them. 
As no capsulogenous glands have been found in Megas- 
colex and Megascolides, some other origin for the albu- 
minous fluid in the cocoon must be sought for. 
The only organs which can be supposed to secrete this 
fluid in the two genera are the atria (= prostates) and the 
spermathecee. 
Now, the function of the atria seems to be probably that of 
compacting together the spermatozoa so that they can be easily 
transferred to another individual during copulation, and they 
are well developed with additional glands in the Tubificide, 
whose cocoons appear to be without any albumen (Vejdovsky, 
