ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 487 



circlet of strongly developed receptacula seminis. interpolated between 

 the gland and the oviduct— Tremoctopus violacevs. 



3. The receptacula seminis not so well developed ; a fresh gland 

 developed between them and the primitive gland — Parasira catenu- 

 lata. 



4. No receptacula seminis ; the walls of the primitive and of the 

 secondary gland highly developed, and in the latter so far advanced 

 as to lead to a fusion of the glandular sacs — Octopus, Eleclone. 



Various as are the forms of the oviducal gland in the Octopoda it 

 is important to notice how uniform they are in the Decapoda. 



The author then enters upon a consideration of the so-called 

 water-canals and the viscero-pericardiac cavity ; he finds that the 

 genital capsule of the Octopoda is the (reduced) direct homologue of 

 the viscero-pericardiac cavity of the Decapoda ; and that the water- 

 canals of the Octopoda correspond to the anterior, while the genital 

 capsule corresponds to the hinder portion of the viscero-pericardiac 

 cavity of the Decapoda. And he concludes with accounts of 

 Tremoctopus ocellatus n. sp., Octopus pictus n. sp., Loligo bleekeri, and 

 Cranchia reinhardli. 



Ink-Sac of Cephalopoda.* — P. Girod publishes a full and detailed 

 account of his study of this organ.! By a careful dissection, first of 

 the peripheral trabeculse, and then of the apex of the pyramid formed 

 by the formative zone, we come upon the cellular mass which forms 

 the central portion of the trabecule. When a portion of the tissue 

 of this part is teased out, elongated cylindrical cells may be 

 detected which, in their general character, are not unlike the 

 cylindrical cells of many mucous membranes ; the large nucleus 

 which occupies the narrower end of the cell becomes very apparent on 

 the addition of colouring reagents. The cell itself, on high mag- 

 nification, is found to be divisible into two portions : the larger of 

 these is coloured yellow by picrocaimine, and seems to be formed of 

 a hyaline liquid, which is limited on the nuclear side by a faint, 

 slightly concave, and granular line ; the second and narrower portion 

 contains a granular protoplasm. The constitution of the cell sug- 

 gested to the author that it belonged to the calyciform series, but the 

 absence of any orifice did not seem to him to justify that view. 

 Near these cells others may be seen which contain black granula- 

 tions in their upper portion ; these are not cylindrical, but are 

 divided by constrictions into three portions ; the uppermost colour- 

 ing matter is bounded externally by the cell-membrane, and is also 

 distinctly separated from the nucleus. On the whole, there is a very 

 close connection between these and the cells of the first set, the 

 hyaline mass in the latter being now filled with pigmented granula- 

 tions, and the part which contains the nucleus having been elongated. 

 Other cells present other characters ; in some there is a much larger 

 aggregation of pigment, whence two lateral prolongations descend, 

 one on either side of the nucleus : here, too, slight pigmented granu- 



* Arch. Zool. Expe'r. et Gen., x. (1882) pp. 1-100 (5 pis.). 

 t See this Journal, i. (1881) pp. 227, 586, and 876. 



