AND THE MALES OP CERTAIN CEPHALOPODS. 151 



Now that we have exactly described the spermatophore con- 

 tained in the flask, let any one compare our description with 

 that which MM. Kolliker and Siebold have given of the contents 

 of the sac of the Hectocotylus, and the perfect agreement of the 

 two will be obvious : the spermatophore surrounded by a trans- 

 parent envelope, having the same properties as the envelope of 

 the supposed testicle in the Hectocotylus : the seminal cord of 

 the spermatophore resembling in all respects the same organ 

 rolled up in the genital capsule of the arm : the ejaculatory cord 

 of the seminal mass with its spiral ligament, its more solid and 

 pointed extremity, nowise different from the deferent canal and 

 the penis described by these authors ; there can no longer be 

 any doubt as to the identity of these organs. It is then evident 

 that the seminal machine constructed in the internal organs of 

 the male, leaves these organs to be transplanted into the sac 

 which the hectocotyliform arm carries ; this then, loaded, becomes 

 detached from its pedicle and affixes itself to the female, in all 

 probability during an act of copulation or embracing, which takes 

 place, as we know, among the other Cephalopoda. 



It is true that no observation at present known explains to us 

 the mode of transport of the seminal machine from the aperture 

 of the generative organs situated in the branchial cavity as far 

 as the sac of the abnormal arm ; and it may be that the mobile 

 flabellum which terminates the Hectocotyll of the Argonaut and 

 those of our Tremoctopus Carena, is charged with the per- 

 formance of this removal of the seminal machine. M. Kolliker 

 has observed, in fact, that in one specimen of the HectQCotylus 

 Argonauta, the anterior extremity of the flabellum was bent back 

 into the aperture of the sac containing the seminal machine, and 

 that this extremity was twisted around the machine. It may 

 be that M. Kolliker surprised the Hectocotylus at the moment 

 when the flabellum was depositing its seminal mass in the sac of 

 the arm, though it is very possible on the other hand that this 

 engagement of the extremity of the flabellum was simply an 

 accident due to the continual explorations performed by the 

 organ. The acts of copulation and fecundation even are not yet 

 known to occur by direct observation 5 but as all the observers 

 who have up to this time found detached Hectocotyli have found 

 them on the arms, in the funnel, and in the respiratory cavity 



