1 905.] VASCULxiR SYSTEM OF LACERTILIA. 485 



related Opliidia. A likeness between Hatteria and the Ophidia 

 fits in well with the view that Hatteria, though unquestionably an 

 ancient form, is nevertheless to be placed closer to the iSquamata 

 than to any other group of Reptiles. The Amphisbsenids un- 

 <loubtedly differ much from other Lacertilia, not only in sti'uctures 

 related to their apodous condition and snake-like habit, but in 

 various features which have at least no obvious connection Avith 

 their mode of life. There are no clear indications of their 

 i-elationship to other Lacertilia*. It may be that the fact dealt 

 with above is of some suggestiveness as a. clue to the position of 

 this group, which, judging from its distribution and great modifi- 

 cation, would not seem to be a modern type of Lacertilian. 



Other Veins. — It has been recorded by v. Bedriaga that the 

 ■posterior vena cava of Amjjhisbcena shows no divergences from 

 the Lacertilian type. The left vena renalis revehens turns 

 abruptly to the right at about the middle of the testis, where it 

 receives the left spermatic vein, and from the light vena renalis 

 revehens where the latter receives the right spermatic vein. In 

 its course the vena, renalis revehens of the right side (no doubt 

 of the left also, though I have not positively ascertained the fact) 

 appears to receive several veins from the parietes. These, how- 

 ever, really open into a vein to be described later. 



Siqira-renal portal veins exist. Thei-e were two on the left 

 side and two on the right. On the right side, where circumstances 

 ullowed a more careful study, these veins were seen to open into 

 a vein running along the vas deferens as figured by Hochstetter t 

 for Lacerta viridis. But in Amphishcena this vein runs back to 

 the kidney and i-eceives in its course between the testis and the 

 kidney four veins from the parietes springing close to the dorsal 

 line. In continuation of this series three veins open into each 

 kidney. 



This vein is shown in the accompanying figvire (text-fig. 68, 

 p. 486). It is clearly the equivalent of the vena deferentialis 

 figured and described hy Hochstetter in Varanus %. He does not, 

 however, mention branches to it from the paiietes, such as occur in 

 AmjyJiishoina. Considei-ing this latter fact and the relations of 

 the vein to the vas deferens (Wolfiian duct), I imagine that it is to 

 be regarded as a persistent, though small, posterior cardinal vein. 



"V. Bedriaga, in his illustration § of the viscera and vascular 

 canals in Amphisbcena cinerea, shows veins from the parietes 

 opening into the vena renalis revehens of the left side. But this 

 illustration refers to a female example, in which the vein which 

 I have just described may not exist. Moreover, veins running 

 along the oviducal membrane and opening into the kidney-system, 

 such as exist in other Lizards, are obviously not the homologues 



* They are, as it appears to me, rightly regarded by Fiirbriuger as a suborder 

 equivalent to Lacertilia vera, Chamseleouta, &c. 

 t Morph. JB. xix. Taf. xvi. fig. 13. 

 t Zoc. cit. p. 465, Taf. xvi. fig. 17, v.cl. 

 § Arch. f. Naturg. Bd. 1. 1884, pi. iv. fig. 2, rr. 



