170 



MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON AX EARTHWORM 



[Feb. 20, 



There does indeed seem to be an attachment of each gland to the 

 oesophageal wall, but it is rather of a membranous character ; at 

 the same time it is quite possible that the adhesion represents an 

 embryonic duct which becomes occluded in the fully developed 



Fig. 2. 



ca./. 



Ca.2. 



Benhamia ccaifera. 



Calciferous glands (ca. 1, ca. 2, ca. 3) : o, their orifice in oesophageal wall ; 



s, septa. 



worm, like the ductus arteriosus in many mammals. The discovery 

 of a single duct into the oesophagus which does duty for all three 

 glands of one side of the body is not, however, my own, not even 

 for this genus Benhamia. 



Dr. Horst has recently given some account ' of the anatomy of a 

 Liberian species of this genus, B. liberiensis, which is characterized 

 by precisely the same state of affairs ; but it is not by any means 

 universal in the genus Benhamia ; for in the same memoir which 



1 " On two new Benhamia Species from Liberia." Notes Levd. Mus. xvii. 

 p. 21. 



