456 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxix. 



the eggs. In 1S69, in an aquarium where he had a number of S. 

 niquille, he noticed two closely em))racing- each other. These he 

 separated, and found that the pouch of the male was empty, but that 

 the two folds were gelatinous, vascularized, and soldered throughout 

 their whole length, save for a little opening at the anterior end. The 

 end of the oviduct of the female projected some 6 to 8 mm. beyond the 

 anal region, and this was introduced into the opening of the sac of 

 the male. They were put back into the water and came together time 

 after time, the female repeatedly putting the end of the oviduct into 

 the opening of the pouch. He noted that only at the time of laying 

 was the oviduct so elongated, at other times it was only about 2 mm. 

 long. 



The observations I have made substantiate these in all respects. 

 Lafont, however, stated that the eggs, after being laid directly into 

 the pouch, were arranged in four ranks around a central axis; that thej'^ 

 went with ease into all parts of the pouch, where they were implanted 

 in the mucus b}^ the aid of fibers which came to anastomose with the 

 central axis, and served to nourish the fetuses. As will be shown 

 later, this is not true of S. Jloi'ldse: His idea of nourishment in the 

 pouch falls in, however, with the conclusions of Eckstroem, Rathke, 

 Lockwood, and others. This most important and interesting account, 

 of which the above is almost a literal translation, seems to have been 

 lost sight of — Dumeril and Smitt being the only authorities who cite it. 



Canestrini, in 1871, hypothesized the manner of transfer, thought' 

 that fertilization took place after the deposition of the eggs, and dis- 

 covered a minute anal fin in the duct made by the anterior end of the 

 pouch in the Lophobranchs. The same was reported by Rathke 

 (1837) in the young of the Black Sea Syngnathus argetitahis. The 

 anal is very minute in S. Jioridse^ and so hidden that it was unnoticed 

 until I had first found it in the embryos. 



Canestrini affirmed that in the young of Hippocampus hrevirostris^ 

 •5.76 mm. long, he found a small but perfectly distinct caudal fin, and 

 refers to a fossil sea-horse (?) Calamostoma which had a caudal. Dr. 

 Theodore Gill, however, informs the writer that Calamostoma was not 

 a sea-horse at all, nor was it in anywise nearly related. In the young 

 of //. Jmdso7iius^ 8 mm. long, just hatched from the pouch, there is, 

 projecting beyond the end of the notochord, a blunt, spine-like body 

 which Ryder (1881) figures and describes as a "caudal fold," but which 

 is wholly devoid of fin rays. 



Marcusen and his pupil, Passentewitsch, spent several months at 

 Odessa, on the Black Sea, in 1872, reviewing Rathke's observations on 

 the Syngnathids. Their work may be summed up as follows: 



(1) In S. argentatus and tenuirostris both males and females possess 

 caudal pouches. 



(2) In hundreds of specimens examined, no female of these species 

 was ever found with eggs in the pouch. 



