138 Br. A. Dendy on the 



any definite statements as to the mode of reproduction of the 

 New South Wales Peviiiatus for me to contradict. There 

 was merely the assumption by Mr. Fletcher (which I quoted 

 and characterized as very natural) that the young animals 

 which he found in company with the parent had been born 

 alive. 



(3) I consider that I was fully justified in assuming tliat 

 the mode of reproduction of the New South Wales Peripatus 

 was the same as that of the Victorian one, as at the time 

 when I wrote there were no definite observations published 

 as to the mode of reproduction of the former, and it was 

 almost inconceivable that diflferent individuals which Mr. 

 Fletcher himself, in common with all other writers on the 

 subject, regarded as belonging to one and the same species, 

 should be oviparous in the one colony and viviparous in the 

 other. I have no doubt now that the New South Wales 

 Peri^^atus is viviparous, as maintained by Mr. Fletcher and 

 Professor Haswell ; but I would ask Mr. Fletcher to remem- 

 ber that when I wrote the only published observations as to 

 the mode of reproduction of the New South Wales species 

 were («) the finding of the young in company with the 

 mother, though there was nothing, so far as the published 

 account goes, to show that they had not been hatched from 

 eggs laid for some time : and (Z*) a footnote * to one of 

 Mr. Fletcher's observations, stating that a female had been 

 dissected and found to be pregnant; the term pregnant is 

 not defined, and might, in my opinion, be correctly applied 

 to a female containing large but undeveloped eggs in the 

 uterus; nothing is said by Mr. Fletcher about the embryos. 



Mr. Fletcher may personally have liad abundant evidence 

 that the New South Wales Peripatus was viviparous, but 

 that evidence was not published and not known to rae when 

 I wrote ; and therefore I consider that I was quite justified 

 in stating that the mode of reproduction of P. Leuckartii was 

 unknown and in placing my own interpretation upon the 

 only recorded facts as to the life-history of the New South 

 Wales form. Naturally I interpreted them in the light of 

 my own observations on the Victorian species. That inter- 

 pretation I now fully admit to be incorrect, and I congratu- 

 late myself that if my observations have had no other good 

 result they have at least elicited some definite information as 

 to the mode of reproduction of the New South Wales 

 Peripatus. 



(4) Mr. Fletcher seems to be very greatly troubled because 



* Proc. Liuu. Soc. N. S. \V. vol. ill. p. 892. 



