Reproductive Organs of Plireoiyctes. 391 



am right in referring the present worm to the genus Phreo- 

 ryctes. 



Testes. — There are two pairs of these organs, situated in 

 segments ten and eleven j they are attached to the anterior 

 septa of their segment to the outside of the ventral pair of 

 seta3. The testes are large bodies and occupy a very con- 

 siderable portion of their segment ; so far as their shape can 

 be made out by sections they appear to be irregularly conical 

 in form, the apex forming the point of attachment. In the 

 possession of two pairs of testes and in the position of these 

 organs Phreoryctes agrees with the majority of earthworms ; 

 the only ally of the Lumbriculidge which has an identical 

 arrangement is Ocnerodrilus (Eisen, Acta reg. Soc. Upsala, 

 1878), and Vejdovsky has already indicated some of the 

 points of resemblance which this latter genus bears to the 

 terricolous forms. 



Vasa deferentia. — No sexual ducts have hitherto been 

 recorded in Phreoryctes, neither vasa deferentia nor oviducts. 

 Leydig and Timm suggest that the nephridia, which occupy 

 the segments where they should be found, perform tlie func- 

 tions of reproductive ducts. The occurrence, however, of 

 nephridia in the generative segments is now known through 

 the researches of Vejdovsky. Nephridia are present in these 

 segments before the sexual ducts make their appearance ; it is 

 probably, as Vejdovsky suggests, this fact which misled 

 Leydig and Timm into regarding the nephridia of the genital 

 segments as fulfilling the office of vasa deferentia and oviducts. 

 It would obviously be of the greatest possible interest if the 

 suggestion of Leydig and Timm should prove to be correct ; 

 it cannot, however, be correct if my species is a Phreoryctes, 

 for I have succeeded in finding both vasa deferentia and 

 oviduct. 



The vasa deferentia correspond in number to the testes, 

 that is to say there are two pairs of them. The funnels are 

 flattened disks (PI. XXIII. fig. 6) closely applied to the sep- 

 tum ; they are perfectly simple in form, not plicated ; and 

 as their epithelium is composed of rather small columnar 

 ciliated cells they were not readily found. The funnels lie 

 in segments ten and eleven just opposite to the attached end 

 of the testes. From the inner corner of each funnel arises 

 the vas deferens, which is a ciliated tube composed of a single 

 layer of columnar cells. The vas deferens passes through 

 the septum and opens on to the exterior a little to the outside 

 of the ventral pair of setas ; the important fact to be noticed 

 bout the vasa deferentia of this worm is that all the four 

 vasa deferentia ojpen independently , and there are no atria. 



27* 



