86 Mr. F. E. Beddavcl on a 



entirely without a gizzard. The septal glands are well 

 developed, and extend back as far as segment vii. ; thej have 

 the same strncture as in other Oligochffita. 



In the ninth segment is, as in all the other species of the 

 genns, a single median diverticulum of the oesophagus. I 

 have reserved the description of this organ till now, as it 

 happened to be better preserved in this species than in the 

 two foregoing, I believe that the structure is identical in 

 the other species ; it certainly is in the next two. The 

 pouch is egg-shaped, the cffical extremity being directed 

 forwards. There is no trace that I could detect of a forma- 

 tion of the pouch out of two halves ; it is a single structure 

 accurately median in position. 



The septum separating segments ix./x. closely invests the 

 pouch ventrally, so closely that it is easy to mistake it for the 

 actual walls of the pouch. The real wall of the pouch is 

 excessively delicate, consisting of a fine nucleated membrane 

 which represents the peritoneum. The lumen of the pouch 

 is, where it conmiunicates with the oesophagus, very narrow ; 

 it then becomes wider and afterwards narrower again. The 

 lining epithelium is different in character from the oeso- 

 phageal epithelium, as may be seen in the accompanying 

 figure (fig. 2). This epithelium appears to be composed of 

 very narrow and close-set cells ; in a given section but few 

 of these, in relation to their total number, were furnished with 

 a nucleus. This leads me to infer that the cells are con- 

 siderably broader in one direction than in another, that they 

 have in fact the form of longish narrow plates. This epi- 

 thelial sac is not immediately surrounded by the delicate 

 peritoneal investment of the organ already referred to. Be- 

 tween the two lies a mass of cells (fig. 2), which forms the 

 bulk of the organ. That this mass, which lies between the 

 outer investment and its epithelial lining, is composed of 

 cells, can only be inferred by the presence of numerous 

 nuclei ; no cell boundaries whatsoever could be detected. 

 The nuclei in question are numerous, small, and darkly 

 staining. The faintly staining substance, in whicli they are 

 imbedded, has a distinctly reticulated appearance — not 

 perhaps quite so coarse as is shown in the figure. It is 

 traversed by numerous blood-vessels, which arise either 

 directly from the peri-oesophageal blood-plexus, or indirectly 

 from a sinus itself in conmiunication with that plexus, but 

 lying beneath as well as above the epithelial lining of the 

 pouch. These capillaiies, which are \ery abundant, collect 

 to form a blood-vessel lying on the ventral side of the cal- 

 eiferous pouch. This vessel corresponds to the pair of 



