536 FLORENCE BUCHANAN. 



I have been able to make out is that the nephridia^ or at least 

 renal organs of some sort (for, in the state of preservation the 

 specimen was in, all one could see of a renal organ was a solid 

 mass of tissue containing yellowish concretions, and a short 

 duct leading to the exterior), occur regularly one in each half- 

 segment; that the blood-vessels spring very irregularly from 

 the dorsal vessel and form plexuses in the segments on each side 

 of the alimentary canal, and a sinus round the alimentary canal 

 itself. They seem to be equally irregular in segments which 

 are regular externally, but in both cases injury to the tissues 

 generally, owing to the state of preservation,^ may have caused 

 the blood-vessels to break, and thus assume an irregularity 

 when put together from sections. The nerves go out in this 

 specimen quite regularly in pairs ; one pair to both the thirty- 

 second parapodia, one to both the thirty-third, and one to 

 both the thirty-fourth. The septa are throughout the body 

 incomplete, but as far as they do project into the body-cavity 

 they seem to follow the external boundaries of the segments. 

 I hope, in the course of time, to obtain specimens which will 

 enable me to come to more definite conclusions with regard to 

 the internal organs in the different varieties of spirals. It 

 would also be very interesting to examine specimens of 

 A. rostrata internally, and so get different intermediate con- 

 ditions. 



There are but few other genera in the family Amphinomidae, 

 and there are none of them very common. There is, however, 

 one other genus at least in which irregularity in segmentation 

 occurs, though I have only noticed it at present in one 

 specimen. This is the genus Chloeia, of which I suppose I 

 have seen about twelve specimens altogether, and the one 

 specimen I refer to is in the possession of the Royal College 

 of Surgeons' Museum. It has thirty-five segments, and of 

 these the halves of each of the last eight are not opposite one 



' I should mention that the specimens were not intended for histological 

 work, but only for museum specimens, and as such all the Amphinomes iu the 

 Madras collection are very well preserved considering how difficult Polychsetes 

 are to preserve well. 



