THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



" perlitora spargite museum. 



Naiades, et cireiim vitroos considite fontes : 

 PoUioe virgineo teneros hie carpite flores: 

 Floribus et pictiim. divae, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o NvraphsB Criiterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, reeurvato variata corallia trunco 

 Vellite museosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Deae pelagi, et pingui conchy lia succo." 



N.PartheniiGianneftaitii Eel. 1, 



No. 55. JULY 1892. 



I. — Natural History Notes jrom H.M. Indian Marine Survey 

 Steamer ' Investigator, Lieut. Gordon S. Gunn, BN., 

 commanding. — Series II,, No. 4, Some Observations on 

 the Embryonic History of Pteroplatgea micrura. By A. 

 Alcock, M.B., Surgeon-Naturalist to the Survey. 



[Plate IV.] 



1. Introduction. 



Professor Wood-Mason and I liave shown that in Ptero^ 

 plafa^a micrura the ovum is retained within the uterus, and, 

 further, that the uterine mucous membrane is furnished with 

 nursing-filaments, or trophonemata, which secrete a " milk " 

 that supplies the embryo with nutriment during the later 

 stages of its development and up to the day of its birth. 



Though we had examined a good many pregnant females, 

 we had not up to the time that our researches were published 

 met with any that exhibited the earlier stages of embryonic 

 development. But in February last, while the ' Investigator ' 

 was surveying the Godavari Delta, I was fortunate enough 

 to capture a female of Pteroplatcva micrura (Bl. Schn.) in an 

 early stage of pregnancy — double in the right uterus and 

 triple in the left; and in this. paper I propose to give, first, a 



Ann. & Mag. N Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. x. 1 



