52 



Ovaries of the Gar, Lepidosteus 



DISCUSSION. 



Lipoids. 



The lipoid fraction in terms of the moist sample of ovary is 

 comparatively large, from 15 to 20 per cent. In the single sample 

 of Lepidosteus osseus, 42a, it reaches 26 per cent, which is higher 

 than any value for fish ovary found in the literature. In the gar 

 ovary, especially in the young stages, there is a deposit of fat in 

 the supporting tissues which in some samples is quite considerable. 



TABLE II. 

 Analyses Arranged in Series According to the Weights of the Ovaries. 



* Not recorded. 



f The notes record that there was a large amount of extra-ovular fat 

 in this ovary 



J Not recorded, but this was undoubtedly the oldest fish of the series. 

 The ovary weighed several hundred grams. 



The analysis of the entire ovary does not distinguish between this 

 fat, which might be called extra-ovular, and the lipoids of the 

 developing ovules with their increasing mass of cell yolk. The 

 total egg yolk lipoids seem to increase as the eggs develop. 



If one arranges the analyses in a series according to the weight 

 of the ovaries, it is noted that in a general way the percentage 

 of ether-soluble materials increases with the increase in weight, 

 Table II. The parallelism between increase in weight, diameter 

 of the ova, and length of the fish shown in this table is evidence 

 that the increase in lipoids is in part at least due to growth of 



