262 FRANK E. BEDDARD. 



coelomic spaces is secondary. Accordingly, as regards the 

 Eudrilidse, Eudrilus represents perhaps the most archaic form. 

 This is also, it may beremarked;in accordance with the fact of its 

 geographical distribution. It occurs in South America, the 

 West Indies, St. Helena, New Caledonia, and New Zealand, 

 being therefore one of the most widely spread of earthworms. 

 It seems, therefore, permissible to argue from Eudrilus to 

 the other Eudrilidse ; and this I have attempted to do in the 

 case of the ovarian oviducts and atria (see p. 268). It would 

 be interesting to ascertain how far the spermathecal coelomic 

 spaces are represented in Teleudrilus; the connection 

 between the perigonial sinus and the egg-sac is developed in 

 that genus as in Heliodrilus and Hyperiodrilus, but not 

 Eudrilus. 



2. Male Generative Organs. — The testes are, asusual, 

 paired structures which lie in the 10th and 11th segments. 



Each testis has a number of processes of unequal sizes, as 

 is so very generally the case with earthworms. The testes, 

 however, do not conform to the general rule in their position ; 

 they lie near to the posterior septum of their segment, as in 

 Acanthodrilus annectens (4), alone among earthworms at 

 present known. 



Furthermore, each testis, instead of lying freely in the 

 coelom, is surrounded by a small sac, which is only large 

 enough to contain the testis (see fig. 15) ; this sac is attached 

 to the lateral parietes some way above the nerve-cord by a thin 

 mesentery (fig. 15, mes.), and directly to the septum which 

 divides its segment from the one following. This sac has for 

 its size tolerably thick muscular walls, and of course a lining 

 as well as a coating of peritoneal cells. 



The vasa deferentia have the same curious arrangement 

 that Rosa was the first to describe (10) in Teleudrilus, and 

 which I have already mentioned as occurring in Hyperio- 

 drilus; each vas deferens perforates septa 10, 11, or 11, 12, 

 and then, passing back, again perforates them to reach the in- 

 terior of one of the sperm-sacs which depend from the posterior 

 surface of these septa. 



