196 MR. "F. E. BEDDABD ON EAETHWORMS [June 4, 



Generative organs. — The testes 1 did not detect. The ovaries were 

 very small, though easily recognizable in their usual segment 

 (the xiiith). There are two pairs of funnels, which seem at first 

 sight to be situated farther forward than is the rule ; they lie in 

 fact beneath, and are quite concealed by, the lai'ge gizzards. The 

 shifting of the septa, however, already referred to, accounts for 

 this appearance ; and I have little doubt but that the funnels lie in 

 segments x. and xi. They are large, much folded, and of an opaque 

 white colour as is usual with the funnels of the terrestrial Oligo- 

 chEeta. The si)erm-sacs are apparently but slightly developed, that 

 is if I am right in my identification of these structures. In 

 segment xii. and attached just behind the posterior pair of funnels 

 to the septum near to the ventral body-wall, is a pair of small 

 pear-shaped bodies which I took at first for testes^ so small are 

 they, and of so unusual a form for sperm-sacs. Nevertheless I 

 imagine that they must be sperm-sacs, though I could make out 

 nothing decisive in their structure when teased in glycerine. A 

 second pair of apparently similar sacs lie above them and protrude 

 into their segment through an obviously natural foramen in the 

 septum. A series of sections enable me to state definitely that 

 these are sperm-sacs. The sjjermiducal glands are large and much 

 coiled, so that they occupy only two or three segments. They 

 appear, however, above the gut in this region. The muscular duct 

 in which they end is thinnish and of some extent. 



This Benliamia has the usual tw^o pairs o£ sjyermatheco', which are 

 large and completely hidden by the gizzards ; their external orifices 

 are, however, between segments vii./viii. and viii./ix. Each sac 

 (text-fig. 13, p. 197) consists of a thin-walled receptacle of somewhat 

 irregular form owing to its being not very full of secreted matter, 

 and to unequal pressure by the other viscera in the preserved worm. 

 Leading from this pouch is the thick-walled and more muscular 

 duct, which is quite of equal length to the pouch. Attached to 

 the duct nearer to its external opening than to the pouch is a single 

 diverticulum, which is composed of a rosette of flattened seminal 

 chambers which are chalk-white from the enclosed semen. 



Penial Setce. — It is rather extraordinary that the very fragile 

 penial setse were absolutely intact. Protruding from each of the 

 four spermiducal gland-apertures was a single long penial seta 

 of a brown horn-colour, and some four or five millimetres long. 

 That they were protected by the deep depression in which the 

 male orifices lie is possibly the cause of their preservation ; for I 

 found them very brittle. These four setae stand up perfectly 

 straight without a bend, except at the very tip, which is hooked. 

 It is a curious fact that they were symmetrically disposed ; each 

 pair stood as it were back to back, with the hooks directed outward. 

 I do not think that this regularity in the position of the penial 

 setsD has been commented upon before. 



The appearance of these setse under the microscope (see text- 

 fig. 16, p. 205) is characteristic. Very nearly the whole of that 

 part of the seta which is exposed at the surface of the body is marked 



