576 FRANK E. BEDDAED. 



In the stage that I am describing here, there was no dis- 

 coverable trace of the integumental network ; the external 

 pores of the nephridia were apparently paired, but as they 

 were very minute, I may possibly have overlooked other orifices. 

 It should be mentioned that the nephridial funnels exist at 

 this stage ; they lie in a plane considerably above that in which 

 the longitudinal ducts lie, and there is, therefore, no chance of 

 my having confounded the longitudinal duct with the tube 

 leading to the funnel. 



Generative Organs. — In a specimen without a clitellum, 

 but as large or nearly so as some specimens with a clitellum, 

 the spermatheca was not visible from the exterior; that is to 

 say, there were no traces that could be seen, even with a lens, 

 of the external pore, which, though small, is quite evident in 

 mature or nearly mature specimens. 



Longitudinal sections revealed a very remarkable condition 

 of the female reproductive apparatus. 



The ovaries, receptacula ovorum, and oviducts present the 

 same arrangement as in more typical genera of earthworms 

 (Lumbricus, for example). 



The epidermis in the middle of Segment 13 for a small 

 space is difi"erent from the rest ; this difference, however, 

 merely consists in the entire absence of glandular cells. 

 This modification of the epidermis, which is illustrated in 

 fig. 13, first appears in this stage; it is not directly in- 

 herited from the epidermis of the embryo, as yet undif- 

 ferentiated into gland. cells and packing-cells. In the earlier 

 stages which I have already described there is no means of 

 distinguishing by the characters of the epidermis the median 

 part of Segment 13, which is so marked in the present stage. 

 A complete series of sections through the 13th and neighbour- 

 ing segments showed a small sac (fig. 13) lying immediately 

 beneath the nerve-cord and in contact with the body-walls. 

 The walls of this sac are chiefly muscular; it is lined with a 

 layer of cells, of which the nuclei alone were darkly stained ; 

 the outlines of the cells themselves were rather hard to make 

 out, but the epithelium was evidently composed of very low 



