54 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



end ; a stout muscle is attached to this upper end, which is coiled and 

 has a termination suggestive of a rudimentary flagellum. The 

 superior dilatation of the vas deferens is unusually large, and presents 

 a sigmoid flexure ; a large muscle rises from its lower end. 



There is variation in the degree of slenderness or tumidity of the 

 di:fferent parts of this apparatus, but the remarkable flexures of the 

 spermathecal duct, vas deferens, and lowest part of the vagina appear 

 to be always present. I think that care should be taken to study 

 these organs in fixed specimens, unless the object is only to make 

 a rapid diagnosis. The use of acid alcohol facilitates the proper 

 separation of the parts. 



Scale of mitllnetras. 



Fig. 2. 



The general arrangement of the digestive tract is shown in Fig. 2. 

 The buccal mass resembles that of V. hibernica, but is usually more 

 oblongate. The ducts of the salivary glands are long and twisted. 

 The large muscle terminating in the maxilla has a sheath marked 

 with regular transverse striations. Its mode of attachment to the 

 maxilla is somewhat complicated ; this organ is shown in Fig. 3, It 

 consists of one-half of a sphincter oris muscle chitinised in two layers. 

 Round this lies a thin margin of chitin which is morphologically 

 continuous with the preoral folds of the epidermis, in which incipient 

 chitinisation may sometimes be seen, though not so clearly as in some 

 species (e.g. in Agriolimax agrestis). The actual 'beak' of the 



