456 CIRRHOPODA. 



ovipositor, whereby the ova derived from both sides of the body are 

 expelled. Before scattering them abroad, as Cuvier noticed, the animal 

 retains them for a considerable length of time concealed between the 

 body and the mantle, where they form two or three irregularly-shaped 

 layers. When the eggs are found in this situation, he observed that 

 the ovaria were empty and the testicles much less tumid circum- 

 stances which indicate the season of oviposition to be at an end. 



(1176.) In opposition to the views entertained by Cuvier concerning 

 the generative process in the class before us, various continental writers 

 consider the true ovary to be contained in the cavity of the tubular 

 fleshy pedicle, which in Pentelasmis serves to fix the body to the sub- 

 stance whereunto it is attached. This, indeed, at certain periods, is 

 found to be filled with oval granular bodies of regular shape, which are 

 apparently real ova, diffused through the loose cellulosity enclosed 

 within it ; and these ova, being found in different states of maturity, 

 are apparently secreted in the pedicle itself, although some authors 

 contend that, having been formed and impregnated in the manner 

 indicated by Cuvier, they are conveyed into this situation by the ovi- 

 positor, as upon this assumption the prolonged organ (fig. 235, k) would 

 be named. Other anatomists, again, regard the instrument last men- 

 tioned as being a real penis, and suggest that from its length it might 

 even be introduced into the peduncular cavity itself, and thus effect the 

 impregnation of the ova contained therein. 



(1177.) It is to Mr. Darwin that science is indebted for a knowledge 

 of the fact that in at least two genera of the Lepadidae distinct male and 

 female individuals exist ; and for the far more wonderful discovery that 

 in the same genera there exist hermaphrodite species, whose masculine 

 efficiency is aided by one or two complemental males. In the genus 

 Ibla for example, in one species, /. Cumingii, the egg-bearing individual 

 is simply female, presenting no trace either of the external proboscidi- 

 form penis, or of the vesiculas seminales, or of the testes ; while, on the 

 other hand, the ovarian tubes within the pedicle are developed in the 

 usual manner, as are likewise the true ovaria at the upper edge of the 

 stomach. But although there thus was a total deficiency of the usual 

 male portion of the sexual apparatus, Mr. Darwin found attached within 

 the sac, in a nearly central line (fig. 236, 7i), a flattened, purplish, worm- 

 like little animal, which, notwithstanding its different appearance, 

 turned out upon dissection to be, in reality, the male Cirriped belonging 

 to this species, although totally dissimilar in its external configuration. 



(1178.) The dimensions and proportions of the male animal vary 

 much ; but it is always exceedingly minute, the longest specimen mea- 

 suring not more than y^ths of an inch in length. The main part of the 

 body consists of the peduncle, which tapers more or less suddenly to- 

 wards its extremity, which latter is imbedded deeply in the integuments 

 of the female, passing obliquely through the chitine-membrane and 



