TEREDO. 139 



maphrodite (in which he followed Fontenel and Massuet) 

 has been within the last few years maintained by 

 Laurent, in opposition to the opinion of Quatrefages 

 that it is bisexual. The last-named author, indeed, 

 stated not only that the sexes are separate, but that the 

 proportion of males was 5 or 6 out of 100 individuals 

 of T. pedicellata which he examined, the rest being 

 females. Baster had fancied, more than a century 

 before this, that coition took place between the Teredines 

 by means of their siphons ! Laurent informs us that he 

 found in an hermaphrodite gland of T. Norvegica eggs 

 and spermatic capsules at the same time, and that the 

 internal organization of the animal did not offer any 

 character to distinguish one sex from the other. I will 

 not pretend to decide such a controversy, which in all 

 probability concerns the whole of the Conchiferous 

 mollusca; but I have already (vol. i. introd. p. xxv) 

 given my reasons for concurring with Milne-Edwards 

 in the belief that all the members of this class are 

 monoecious. The period of propagation, according to 

 Sellius, extends over the greater part of the year, even 

 as late as December, although the summer would seem 

 to be the most favourable season. In the month of 

 February he found the ovaries flaccid and empty. 

 Sellius states that the eggs are never produced inside 

 the wood, but excluded by one of the siphons. He 

 suggested that the latter might have a peculiar (we 

 may say strange) function, namely that of moistening 

 the outside of the wood, and agglutinating the eggs to 

 its surface, or even excavating minute holes in it for the 

 purpose of assisting the fry in effecting an entrance. 

 He was also mistaken in supposing that the fry were 

 hatched only when the eggs adhered to the wood. It 

 has since been ascertained that this process takes place 



