100 Prof. J. Steeustrup on Hectocotylus-/orma^ion 



lateral arms were unmistakeably the largest, did I find such 

 large suckers. 



This equipment of the males of Octopus vulgaris with isolated 

 suckers of remarkable size on certain arms, induces me not to 

 quit the genus Octopus without calling attention to the fact that 

 the above-mentioned 0. Fontaniamts, D'Orb., which, according 

 to D^Orbigny, is the only species hitherto observed on the coast 



described above in Octopus, and especially in O. vulgaris, hardly requires 

 to be more exactly indicated, and it is nothing but a want of acquaintance 

 therewith that has led naturalists astray, when they have asserted that 

 Aristotle had some knowledge of the remarkable peculiarities discovered 

 within the last few years in Argcnauta and Tremoctopus (see Von Siebold, 

 Zeitschr. fur wiss. Zool. 1853, p. 122-124; Roulin, Ann. Sc. Nat. 1852, 

 xvii. p. 191 ; Owen, Lectures on Comp. Auat. 1855, p. 634t). Aristotle's 

 sources of information were evidently the fishermen of the MediteiTanean; 

 these perhaps still know the mode of reproduction of the Octopods, although 

 it is certainly veiy remarkable that the naturalists who have occupied 

 themselves so much with the Cuttle-fishes of the Mediterranean, espe- 

 cially of late years, should have learnt nothing about it. Pliny appears to 

 me only to have known the traditions of the celebrated Greek philosopher 

 and naturalist ; he calls the arms of the Cephalopoda, pediculi, cirri, crmes, 

 brachia, and has the following passage regarding their employment in the 

 service of reproduction in the Polypus or Octopus : " Omnes brachiis, ut 

 pedibus ac manibus, utuntur ; cauda vero, quae est bisulca et acuta, in 

 coitu" (hb.ix.46j; aud''po]vpi (coeunt) crine uno foeminse naribus annexe " 

 (lib. X. 74). 



Rondelet, with whom, as with his contemporarj-, Gesner, Aristotle is a 

 principal soui'ce of information, and with whom the inter]iretation of the 

 (ireek text is an important matter, expresses himself as follows upon the 

 above-mentioned statements of .\ristotle : '• Sed haec somnia esse, anatome 

 certo demonstrat. Mihi saepius polypos dissecanti nunquam visa sunt 

 acetabula ista majora in uno brachio quam in alio, praeterquam in primo 

 et maximo polyporum genere, in quo non duo in uno brachio sed quatuor 

 in quatuor brachiis acetabula prce ceteris omnibus maxima comperias, in 

 aUis generibus minima. Quod si semen hac emitteretur, necesse foret, 

 meatum aliquem ab internis partibus hue deductum, fceminam quoque 

 eodem meatu semen excipere ovaque edere, quae fieri non posse, fatebuntur 

 omnes qui poly]ios viderunt, et ovorum in inferiori ahn loco situs necessario 

 convincit, alio quam brachii acetabulo ova edi." (De Piscibus, Lugduni, 

 1554, lib. xvii. pp. 511, 512.) Rondelet has therefore correctly observed 

 the four large suckers on the lateral arms of the male, but we cannot 

 exactly see whether he has regarded them as a sexual character; in this 

 respect, however, he is somewhat in advance of the more modem observers, 

 who have overlooked both these and the brachius copulator. In D'Orbigny 

 I find no observations upon this organ ; Yerany has regarded the large size 

 of the suckers as something accidental, stating, con-ectly enough, that 

 "the suckers increase imperceptibly up to the fifteenth, which is usually 

 the largest," but afterwards adding, ''and often very disproportionate to 

 those which touch it, especially on the arms of the third pair." {I. c. 

 p. 17.) 



f The author last cited states (p. 634j, '■ It would seem, also, that the 

 modified arm of the male in certain Octopods had not escaped the notice" 

 of Aristotle : citing the passage in question. 



