162 Prof. U'lntosh's Notes from the 



lies on each side, at the base of the branchial process beyond 

 the edge of the spout-like curve. 



The cephalic rim carries three pairs of dichotomously divided 

 branchiae, the basal regions being large and massive, the 

 distal processes rather short and truncated. These organs 

 have their inner surfaces covered with cilia in life. As 

 Mr. Watson* states : "Each has a wide, very flat base and. 

 3 or 4 branches, which are subdivided into 7 or more twigs, 

 each terminated by two small rounded mucus-secreting 

 lobes. In British specimens the branched processes, viewed 

 by transmitted light, are semitransparent, pale greenish blue, 

 or yellow, and tinted with red ; whilst those from Naples 

 are blood-red and in parts coloured with a reddish-brown 

 pigment." The Scotch specimens have a pale brown body, 

 paler posteriorly, and the tentacles are brown. The branchiae 

 have only a notch between them dorsally, but ventrally a 

 considerable interval occurs at the slightly spout-shaped 

 region below the mouth. These organs are richly vascular. 

 Claparede and Cunningham and Ramage suggest that they 

 are merely outgrowths from the periphery of the mouth, and 

 are not homologous with the branchiae of the serpulids. 



The dorsal lobe has, according to Mr. Arnold Watson, a 

 pore leading into the prolongation of the coelom, a condition 

 exceptional in the Polychaeta, though present in the 

 Enchytraeida?. 



Surrounding the circlet of branchiae is a fold or collar of 

 the body-wall, deepest dorsally, and becoming shallow at the 

 ventral edge. A slight fold or notch occurs at each side 

 with a groove running a short distance backward and nearly 

 opposite the interval between the median and ventral 

 branchiae. A transverse patch of brown pigment marks the 

 collar dorsally, passes by the eye-spot on each side, from 

 which it slopes to meet its fellow of the opposite side in the 

 mid-ventral line about the level of the first bristle-bundles. 

 Drasche and Watson showed that this pigment indicates the 

 position of the brain and oesophageal commissures, as. they 

 unite to form the ganglion from which the ventral cord, 

 which is devoid of ganglia or neural canals, arises. 



The body varies from 30-GO mm. in length, is firm and 

 rounded anteriorly, somewhat flattened and tapered pos- 

 teriorly, where it ends in a slightly bilobed tip with the anus 

 in the centre — the condition perhaps being more accurately 

 described as a papillose anus with a dimple in the centre 

 dorsally and ventrally. The segments, which are indistinctly 



* Journ, Linn. Soc, Zool. vol. xxviii, p. 231. 



