ARGONAUTA ARGO AND THE HECTOCOTYLI. 81 



structed continuation of this ; I will only remark that there hung 

 therein a solid white reniform body of some lines in diameter 

 which consisted wholly of spermatozoa. These were quite 

 similar to those which are usually found in Hectocotylus Tremoc- 

 topodis, and it is therefore unquestionable that these Hectocotyli 

 also serve to fecundate the female Tremoctopoda. 



The observation of peculiarly-formed masses of spermatozoa 

 far back in the compartments of the oviducal gland itself, was 

 repeated in many specimens of Tremoctopus, and it seems al- 

 most as though this gland had at least in part the function of 

 a spermatheca ; though indeed its relations in other Octopods do 

 not well agree with this view. On the other side of the gland 

 1 found no semen, neither in the two copulating Tremoctopoda 

 nor in others ; but I will so much the less question the possi- 

 bility of its penetration as far as the ovarian capsule, as the por- 

 tion of the oviduct between the gland and the ovary is remark- 

 able for its conspicuous ciliary epithelium. A similar epithelium 

 invests also the folds of the ovarian capsule itself which converge 

 towards the internal aperture of the oviduct ; it is found there 

 over a considerable space, and finally extends through the so- 

 called water-canal described by Delle Chiaje and Krohn in 

 Tremoctopus and Eledone, which reaches from the posterior side 

 of the ovarian capsule towards the lateral compartment. 



For Argonauta I can bring forward no such complete obser- 

 vation, yet the copulation and fecundation by the penetration 

 of the appendage of Hectocotylus Argonauta into the female 

 sexual aperture become very probable from the following facts. 



The ovarian capsule of an adult Argonaut contained a filiform 

 body, which, from its form, from the lobe at the thicker end, 

 and from its minuter structure, was certainly the torn- off append- 

 age of a Hectocotylus Argonaut ce. Attached to it were very diffuse 

 masses of spermatozoa in lively motion. In another very large 

 Argonaut I had sought in vain for Hectocotyli. After cutting 

 up the intestines, and especially the generative organs in many 

 directions, I found in the water used for washing the parts, three 

 filaments, which were the appendages of so many Hectocotyli. 



Functionally, then, the appendage of Hectocotylus Argonauta 

 is to be compared to the penis of H. Tremoctopodis, although 

 perhaps the appendage is not always intended to reach the ova- 



SCIEN. MEM. Nat. Hist. VOL. I. PART I. 6 



