332 GEOEGINA SWEET. 



* Beneath the modified epidermic areas, there can generally 

 be seen a group of more numerous connective tissue cells, 

 not unlike those found in a developing hair-papilla. Some- 

 times there is a group of about a dozen oval cells staining 

 less deeply than the cells above, and with two or three well- 

 defined nucleoli, I have not been able to detect either nerve 

 or blood supply to these structures, though in a few cases 

 the oval cells appeared to give off processes towards the 

 Malpighian layer, the cells of which immediately above are 

 very pointed, and almost spindle shaped, penetrating the 

 second layer of more cubical cells. 



The general appearance of these structures is that of a 

 taste bud with the stratum corneum continuous over it, and 

 not unlike a developing cutaneous sense organ of Triton. 



Of the sensory function of these structures I can therefore 

 offer no conclusive evidence, but it is reasonable to suppose 

 that in the absence of the sense of sight and pari passu 

 with the apparently increased olfactory function, there might 

 exist some special organ or organs of tactile sense in Noto- 

 ryctes, as in some other forms. It is at least possible that 

 such may be the function of these special cutaneous struc- 

 tures. They cannot be early stages of developing hairs from 

 the fact that they are present in the fully-grown animal 

 alongside well-developed bundles of hairs and often pierced 

 by such bundles. 



Further they are quite different in structure and size from 

 those very early stages of a developing hair which at first 

 sight they slightly resemble. 



So that, although direct proof of such nervous character is 

 wanting, one is led to consider it probable that they are some 

 form of tactile sense-organ, which must be of special use to 

 such a burrowing, sightless animal as Notoryctes. 



