698 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON NEW [DeC. 20, 



no cell-outlines visible, but nevertheless I cannot but regard the 

 mass as being composed of cells vpith perhaps very thin boundary 

 lines. In the centre of each of these glands was a darkly staining 

 rod of tissue which appears to be a blood-vessel ; at the apex these 

 glands opened into the lumen of the oesophagus by an exceedingly 

 narrow diverticulum of the oesophagus ; this tube soon ends, 

 leaving the greater bulk of the calciferous gland composed of the 

 peculiar tissue that I have already described. 



The only other Oligochsets in which calciferous glands at all com- 

 parable to these exist are the genera Gordiodrilus and TrichochcBta. 

 I have lately ^ described the principal anatomical characters of the 

 former new genus, which is mainly found in tropical Africa, though 

 also extending its range to the Nevp World, In all the species of that 

 genus there is a single unpaired median pouch in the ninth segment 

 which in certain particulars resembles the calciferous glands of 

 Eudriloides durbanensis ; the resemblance consists in the tissue which 

 builds up the greater part of the gland and which is apparently 

 identical with that which builds up a greater proportion of the glands 

 in Eudriloides. The peculiar kind of tissue which characterizes 

 the calciferous glands of tliese two genera of Oligochseta is, however, 

 not unknown in the group ; in several aquatic Oligochseta, for 

 example in some Naids and in many Lumbriculidse such as Sutroa ^, 

 the nephridium, just after traversing the septum, is swollen out into 

 an oval tract which shows precisely the same structure as that of 

 the glands already described. I liave figured this tissue in the 

 American Lumbriculid Sutroa, and suggested that it might possibly 

 serve as a filtering tissue. The oval swelling is permeated by fine 

 canaliculi which are not always apparent ; in the same way the 

 similar tissue in the calciferous glands of Eudriloides and of Gordio- 

 drilus seems to be traversed by fine canaliculi (shown in the case 

 of Gordiodrilus in fig. 8 of plate vii. of my memoir already quoted 

 dealing with the anatomy of that worm). It is quite possible, 

 therefore, that Michaelsen's notion that these glands serve as organs 

 of assimilation, rather than as organs of secretion, may prove to be 

 correct in the two Annelids which possess this peculiar form of 

 calciferous gland ; although, as I have pointed out, there can be no 

 doubt that the ventral pouches of Eudrilus do not, at any rate, 

 entirely serve such a purpose, for I found particles of calcareous 

 secreted matter in the lumina of the said pouches ; furthermore the 

 resemblance of this tissue to that found in the nephridia is worthy of 

 note in relation to the fact that in Gordiodrilus there appears to be a 

 communication between the ventral pouches and the nephridia. I 

 do not, however, wish to insist upon more than the actual structural 

 likeness between the tissue in the two series of organs ; this is 

 indeed very striking. It may be that this resemblance between the 

 calciferous pouches of Eudriloides and Gordiodrilus is some evidence 



\ " On a new Genus of OligocliEeta &c.," Ann. & Mae. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, x. 

 p. 74 (1892). ^ 



'" " A Contribution to the Anatomy of Sutroa," Tr. Eoy, Soc. Edinb. (to appear 

 immediately). -^^ 



