SEXUAL ORGANS. 115 



similar to those of Argonauta, and attached within shells or 

 similar concave surfaces. 



In Sepia each egg is enveloped in a large, spindle-formed black 

 capsule, many of which, forming a close mass, are attached to 

 some marine body. 



Another form of egg-masses is that in which a number of eggs 

 are contained in a single large capsule (of which many are 

 aggregated into a mass), attached by its pedicel to some 

 submarine object. In Loligo vulgaris, for example, each long 

 bag-like capsule contains thirty to forty eggs. The capsule of 

 Sepioteuthis is similar, but shorter, and contains fewer eggs. 



During the summer of 1876 I resided at Atlantic City, on the 

 New Jersey coast, and then enjoyed frequent opportunities for 

 observing the development of Loligo punctata,'De Kay (xviii, 12) ; 

 masses of egg-capsules of this species being thrown upon the 

 beach in considerable quantity throughout the season. Some of 

 these masses, when the embryos had attained considerable 

 growth, had grown to prodigious size and weight, being several 

 times larger than the animal which deposited them. I have seen 

 hundreds of cylindrical cases, each three to four inches long and 

 half an inch in diameter, composing a single, soft, jelly-like mass, 

 which lay quivering on the beach, reflecting from its glistening 

 surface rainbow hues, and filled with almost innumerable, rapidly 

 pulsating embryos ; say, at least 250 to each sack. The details 

 of their form and the colored spots of their body were distinctly 

 visible to the naked e3^e. Each embryo is enclosed in its separate 

 round, transparent egg-case, and during its development the 

 yolk-bag is attached to its mouth, and surrounded by its arms. 



Cuthbert CoUingwood (Jour. Linn. Soc, xi, 1813), encountered 

 (in 1870), floating upon the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, in lat. 

 37 ° N. and long. 28^ W., a gelatinous object, somewhat cjdindrical 

 in form, about two feet long and four or five inches in diameter, 

 and containing cephalppodous ova arranged in clusters and single 

 rows. The young animals were very active, and in fact were all 

 discharged a short time after the nidus had been secured. It is 

 impossible to ascertain positively at present to which genus this 

 curious form belongs, though evidently the animal is finned and 

 pelagic. The whole oviposit is here united within a single 

 gelatinous covering instead of being aggregated into sausage- 

 shaped masses each filled with embryos as in Loligo, or in separate 

 eggs as in Sepia. A similar floating mass was obtained by Dr. 

 H. Grenacher, at the Cape Verd Islands, in January, 1872 ; it 

 was nearly 2-5 feet long by 6 inches in diameter (Zeit. Wiss. Zool., 

 xxiv, 1874). 



Quoy and Gaimard (Ann. Sc. Nat., xx, 1830) discovered near 

 the Moluccas, a cylindrical nidimental mass, three feet long and 

 six to eight inches diameter, composed of cephalopodous eggs 



