392 Mr. F. E. Beddavd on the 



At the aperture of the vas deferens the cuticle of the epidermis 

 was continued for a short distance up the tube. 



There are thus four male pores situated a little to the outside 

 of the ventral setaj and disposed in pairs, one pair to each of 

 segments eleven and twelve. The structure and position of 

 the male reproductive ducts is, so far as is known at present, 

 unique among the OligochjBta. Acanthodrilus and Monili- 

 gaster are not really comparable in these particulars, as might 

 be inferred from Vejdovskj's work upon the Oligochgeta. In 

 Acanthodrilus the vasa deferentia of each side unite and open 

 upon the eighteenth segment independently of the two pairs 

 of atria, which open on to the seventeenth and nineteenth seg- 

 ments respectively. In Moniligaster the supposed anterior 

 pair of male reproductive pores are in all probability sperma- 

 thecse (Beddard, " On the Reproductive Organs of Monili- 

 gaster^'' Zool. Anz. Bd. x.). At the same time the sim- 

 plicity of the efferent ducts in Phreoryctes suggests that they 

 are in a primitive condition. 



Ovaries. — There are two pairs of ovaries, a pair to each 

 of segments twelve and thirteen. In position and general 

 shape they are precisely like the testes. The number of 

 ripe ova in each ovary is small, as in most of the lower Oligo- 

 chaita. The presence of two pairs of ovaries is extremely 

 unusual, and there is of course the possibility to be considered 

 that it is abnormal in the present case. There are, however, 

 as I shall point out further on, two pairs of oviducts ; and 

 this fact (coupled with the observations of Leydig and Timm) 

 is confirmatory of the view that tico 2Jat'i's of ovaries are cha- 

 racteristic of the genus Phreoryctes. 



Vejdovsky particularly states that the OligochaBta possess 

 only one pair of ovaries, and believes that the supposed three 

 pairs of ovaries of Euclipidrihis (Eisen, loc. cit.) are testes 

 and seminal vesicles. Lank;ster ("The Sexual Form of Ch. 

 limnmi,^^ Q. J. M. S. 1869) notes that in Ghcetogaster limnoii 

 there are occasionally two pairs of ovaries, but Vejdovsky finds 

 himself unable to confirm this observation. In any case it is 

 certain that a second pair of ovaries is occasionally met with 

 in Lumhricus (Bergh,"Geschlechtsorgane der Kegenwiirmer," 

 Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. 1886) and in Ferionyx (Beddard^ "Va- 

 riations in Pericnyx^'' Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886). The fact of 

 there being two pairs of oviducts in Lumhricxdus (Vejdovsky, 

 ' System und Morph.' &c. p. 150, note) suggests that in that 

 Annelid a second pair of ovaries may exist. 



Oviducts. — Phreoryctes differs from all Oligochgeta except 

 Luvihriculus in the fact that there are two j)airs of oviducts 

 opening on a line with the ventral pair of setce between segments 



