136 Dr. A. Dendy on the 



XTV. — Further Notes on the Ovipariti/ of the larger Victorian 

 Peripatus, generally/ knoion as P. Leuckartii. By ARTHUR 

 Dendy, I).Sc. 



My observations * on the oviparous habit of the larger Vic- 

 torian Peripatus (hitherto generally regarded as identical with 

 the Peripatus Leuckartii of Sanger) have excited a good 

 deal of hostile criticism, chiefly emanating from the pen of 

 Mr. J. J. Fletcher. On three different occasions since the 

 publication of my notes Mr. Fletcher has brought the question 

 iDcfore the Linnean Society of New South Wales, and his 

 remarks have been published (I do not know whether in full 

 or not) in the Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Society f. 



I have already replied to the earlier criticisms in a short 

 paper read at the Hobart meeting of the Australasian Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, which will, I am 

 informed, be published shortly. Mr. Fletcher's latest obser- 

 vations, however, compel me to return to the question, and I 

 am the more willing to do so as I have some further infor- 

 mation to communicate in support of my views. 



The object of Mr. Fletcher's latest contribution to the lite- 

 rature of the subject is explained in the opening paragraph, 

 which runs as follows: — ''This paper is a reply to certain 

 views expressed by Dr. Dendy with regard to the reproduc- 

 tion of the New South Wales Peripatus, which on the ipse 

 dixit of Dr. Dendy himself is P. Leuckartii, Sang. ; the 

 questions at issue being not whether or no the Victorian 

 Peripatus is oviparous, but whether, firstly. Dr. Dendy was 

 justified, on the evidence before him and in the absence of any 

 personal knowledge of the reproduction of the New South 

 Wales Peripatus, in contradicting statements which were 

 quite in order ; and secondly, as Dr. Dendy's views were 

 published in September 1S91, and as certain information on 

 the subject was subsequently brought under his notice, 

 whether it is not now nearly time that Dr. Dendy took steps 

 to explain that his views apply wholly and solely to the 

 Victorian Peripatus, and to withdraw his insinuations respect- 

 ing, and his erroneous interpretation of, ' Mr. Fletcher's 

 observations,' because already Dr. Dendy's statements are 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria for 1891, p. 31 ; ' Nature,' September 17, 

 1891 ; and ' Zoologischer Anzeiger,' no. 380 (1891). 



t September 30, 1891 ; February 24, 1892 ; April 27, 1892. 



