702 MR. F. K. BEDDARD ON NEW [DcC. 20, 



Separate calciferous glands like those of Pontoscolex do not exist 

 in the present species, though it is very possible that three pairs of 

 oesophageal caeca, the structure of which will be described presently, 

 are the horaologues of those glands. The calciferous glands are, 

 however, functionally represented, as is so generally the case with 

 Earthworms in which no separate caeca exist, by a tract of oesophagus 

 with much folded walls ; numerous crystals lying in the interstices 

 of the folds appear to be the product of their epithelium, and are 

 apparently similar to the crystals met with in true calciferous glands. 

 This tract of oesophagus extends through about three segments, 

 commencing with the tenth. It closely resembles the corresponding 

 structure in the nearly allied form Onychochceta \ 



In segments vii., viii., ix. are three pairs of very small oesophageal 

 caeca ; their calibre in transverse section is about the same as that 

 of the dorsal vessel, but as they are very short and narrower at 

 both extremities, they only possess even ibis small diameter for a 

 limited distance. Each csecuni is lined by a layer of low cubical 

 epithelium which does not appear to be ciliated ; between this 

 epithelium and the peritoneum is a plexus of blood-vessels which 

 are very large in proportion to the caecum itself, and protrude into the 

 lumen, reducing it very greatly and causing it to assume here and 

 there a star-shaped contour. It will be noticed that these caeca occupy 

 the same segments as do the calciferous glands of Pontoscolex, and 

 they may probably be safely regarded as the degenerate represen- 

 tatives of the latter. 



Tlie gizzard is large and extends apparently through a considerable 

 number of segments ; defining its limits by the septum which 

 bounds it posteriorly, it would seem to lie in the sixth segment, but 

 the anterior septa are not sufficiently clear to permit of fixing its 

 anterior limits. 



There are, as in some other Geoscolecidae, only a single pair of 

 testes. These belong to the xith segment, and are attached to the 

 front wall of that segment. They are, together with the funnel of 

 the vas deferens, enclosed in a sac, which extends back for some 

 segments (to about the xviith) and is the sperm-sac ; the sperm-sacs, 

 however, although the worm was fully mature, contained no sperm, 

 and were of a very narrow calibre as in Trichochceta hesperidum. 



The funnel of the sperm-duct is very large and folded ; the 

 funnel extends below the testes and nearly reaches the septum to 

 which the testis is attached ; the posterior limit of the funnel, still 

 of course enclosed within the sperm-sacs, is in the septum bounding 

 segments xiii./xiv. ; but they lie close to the ovary. The sperm- 

 duct itself opens on to the exterior on or beyond the xviith segment ; 

 I only traced it as far as the latter, but did not observe the actual 

 opening. The ovaries are in xiii. and opposite to them are the 

 funnels of the oviducts ; the oviducal pores are just in the groove 

 between the xivth and xvth segments. The spermatothecae are three 

 pairs of simple sacs like those of Pontoscolex inix., x., xi. ; the last 

 pair open on to the boundary line of segments xi./xii. 

 1 Q. J. M. S. vol. xxi. p. 159. 



