1886.] LITTLE-KNOWN EARTHWORMS. 307 
find no traces whatever of ova in the former body, and its walls were 
comparatively thick and composed of muscular or perhaps connec- 
tive-tissue fibres. These two series of facts are very decidedly 
opposed to the view that this body is really the ovary, and I have 
no doubt whatever that it corresponds to the receptaculum ovorum. 
In Lumbricus the receptaculum ovorum was correctly described by 
Hering, as Bergh has pointed out. More recently the structure 
has been figured by Dr. Horst!, who also quotes Hering’s observa- 
tions. I have myself observed an evidently similar structure attached 
to the oviduct of Acanthodrilus dissimilis. Dr. Bergh describes the 
origin of these bodies as being similar to that of the receptacula 
seminis ; they arise on the anterior wall of segment 13, and are at 
first independent of the oviducal funnels but subsequently unite 
with them. In Microcheta these receptacula ovorum appear 
therefore more completely to retain their primitive position. It was 
obvious, however, from my sections that there was a communication 
through the mesentery between the receptacula and the oviduct. 
The identification of the supposed ovaries with the receptacula 
ovorum confirms so far the accuracy of my own determination of the 
oviducal funnel. I am bound to say, however, thata most searching 
examination of my sections failed to bring to light any traces of the 
oviducal canal. I see that Mr. Benham has also failed to detect 
any counection between the funnel and the exterior. Assuming, at 
least for the present, that the supposed ovary is nothing more than a 
receptaculum ovorum, the true ovary remains to be identified. This 
I believe to be a glandular-looking body in segment 12, noted 
by Mr. Benham but overlooked by myself at the time when my 
paper was written. Mr. Benham describes and figures (oc. cit. 
pl. xvi. fig. 8) this gland as consisting of a “ mass of rounded cells 
arranged in a band which is bent upon itself several times, the folds 
being close to one another.” It is attached to the anterior septum 
of somite 12. In the specimen of this worm more recently dissected 
by myself, I have found a structure which must correspond to that 
described by Mr. Benham, though it occupies a slightly different 
position and is somewhat different in structure. This gland in my 
specimen was elongated and composed of a mass of rounded in- 
different cells ; the anterior end of the gland was wider than the 
posterior extremity, which tapered gradually, and was attached to 
the anterior mesentery of segment 12; the main part of the gland 
lay along the ventral body-wall close to the nerve-cord. 
The reasons which lead me to suppose that this cellular mass 
represents an ovary in a state of functional inactivity are—first, 
that it oceupies the right position; secondly, that it corresponds 
exactly in structure to certain glandular bodies in Acanthodrilus 
dissimilis’, in which I have observed the occasional development of 
ova, 
1 Tijdschr. d. Nederl. Dierk. Vereen. Deel iii. afl. i. p. 28. 
2 P,Z.S. 1885, p. 828, pl. lii. fig. 9. 
