CEPHALOPODA. 



633 



230 



The subjoined illustration {fig. 230) of the female organs in the 

 Cephalopoda is taken from the Rossia* The ovarian cavity is laid 



open, showing the ovisacs 

 (a, a), which are fewer in 

 number, but relatively double 

 the size of those in Sepia ; one 

 {b) is in the act of shedding 

 the ovum (/) ; others (c, c\ 

 having discharged their ovum, 

 were collapsed and in progress 

 of absorption. The oviduct 

 (rf) commences by a round 

 aperture, and continues mem- 

 branous to the terminal gland 

 (e) allowing the ova {f,f) to 

 be seen through it. The gland 

 (c) consists of two semioval 

 groups of transverse glandular 

 lamellise. The oviduct termi- 

 nates, as in Sepia and Sepiola, 

 on the left side, behind the 

 orifices of the nidamental 

 glands (jg, g). These bodies 

 are situated on the ventral 

 aspect of the abdomen, but are 

 attached, like their homologues in Nautilus and the Gastropods, to the 

 mantle. They are each composed of a double series of transverse, 

 parallel, close-set laminae, the straight margins of which are free and 

 turned towards each other, along the middle line of the gland. When 

 this is laid open, an impacted layer of soft albuminous substance is 

 found occupying the interspace of the two sets of laminae ; in which, 

 in Rossia, it is moulded into a filamentary form, whence it escapes by 

 the anterior orifice, as at h, h, fig. 230. Each supplementary body, 

 i, i, is indented by a deep groove close to the aperture of the nida- 

 mental gland : it may assist in moulding the secretion, and applying 

 it to the ova as they pass out. The female organs of Spirula are 

 like those of Rossia ; but I found the ova in the oviduct packed so as 

 to lie, three or four, in the same transverse line. In the Argonauts 

 the oviducts form several convolutions before they ascend to their 

 termination in the branchial chamber, where, as in Octopus, the 

 vulvae are wide apart : their lining membrane has an uniform thick 



Bos«ia palpebrosa. 



♦ CCLXXL, and Prep. No. 2962 A. 



