354 ME. r. E. BEDDAUD ON eaBThworms [Apr. 16, 



without windings, opens into the spermathecal sac above the 

 alimentary canal, just at the point where the t^vo sacs suyrounding 

 the gut coalesce. The mode of its opening is, however, important 

 for description. The duct, I may say in the iirst place, has a 

 ininute structure which is very similar to that of the part of the 

 oviduct which runs from the funnel to the exterior. It is ciliated 



Text-fig. 87. 



Seniidiagrammatic representation of the female generative system of 

 SfuJ/lma7mi(i. X G. 



be, bursa copulaLrix ; ch, dorsal prolongation of spermathecal sac ; «w, median 

 region of the same ; o, ovary ; ocl, oviduct ; ^3, oviducal pore ; .s/j./j, sperma- 

 thecal pore ; X : cut end of spermathecal sac. 



for a short way below, but higher up ajjpears to lose its cilia. It 

 is lined, however, with cubical cells, and has a thickish muscular 

 wall. The sac into which it opens is of a very different nature : 

 the cells which line it are tall and glandular-looking; it is thus 

 easy to demarcate the orifice of the tube where it opens into the 

 sac. At this point the lower epithelium of the duct is spread out 

 for a short distance round its actual orifice in a fashion quite 

 -reminiscent of the funnel of some of the lower Oligochaeta ; more 

 than this, the cells were ciliated in this region. 



As to the ciliation as a criterion of the oviducal nature of the 

 duct, it is apparently not necessary to insist upon it. Eisen dis- 

 tiuctly states that the oviduct, the undoubted oviduct of Eudrilus, 

 is not ciliated ; and Ilorst did not find ciha everywhere. Now it 

 must be borne in mind that the sacs of the spermathecal apparatus 

 belong to the xiiitli segment. Their enormous development 

 causes a growth backwards ; but nevertheless the orifice of the 

 mouth of the tube must be placed in the xiiith segment. I cannot 

 in fact explain the structure of this part of the egg-conducting 

 apparatus except on the view that we must look upon the tubes 



