ORDER OPHIDIA. 30.5 



The parietes of the lung, or rather of the sort of sac or 

 vesicle, which it represents, are lined by polygonal cellules, 

 themselves edged with a firm, white, opake net work, formed 

 of cords of a tendinous nature, which divide the interior 

 of these cells into smaller areolae, resembling a net- work with 

 loose and very fine meshes. 



There is no epiglottis in the ophidians, and they are 

 equally destitute, as we have already mentioned, of the veil 

 of the palate. Their larynx is formed only by a lower plate 

 and two lateral pieces, contracting a little the edges of the 

 glottis, and accordingly they can utter no other sound than 

 a hissing noise, or rather a powerful sort of breathing. 



" Sibila lambebant linguis vibrantibus ora." 



The organs of generation are double. The testes in the 

 males are situated in front of the kidneys in the abdomen, 

 and on each side of the vertebral column. The epididymis, 

 of small volume, soon changes into a deferential canal, very 

 flexuous, and opening into the cloaca, by the middle of a 

 papilla, sometimes improperly described as a penis ; there 

 are no seminal or accessory vessels. The females have two 

 ovaries, in which the eggs are ranged in chaplets, and not 

 agglomerated in mass as in the batracians. The oviducts 

 are folded, very long, and terminate in the cloaca. The eggs, 

 which are agglutinated by a mucous matter, are rounded, 

 ovoid, and enveloped by a soft membrane, not porous, and 

 slightly encrusted with a calcareous substance ; the yoke is 

 orange-coloured and oily. The albumen is greenish, and 

 scarcely coagulable, as in the chelonians. There is no incu- 

 bation, but sometimes the eggs exclude the young in the in- 

 terior of the body, and the latter are thus bom alive. Such is 

 the case with the viper, which owes its name to this peculiarity. 



The females often take care of their little ones in their 



VOL. IX. X 



