426 MAINE AGRICULTURAI, EXPE:RIME;nT STATION. I912. 



of the oviduct except the anterior portion of the funnel. (2) 

 Glandular grooves. These are accumulations of gland cells at 

 the bottom of the grooves between the secondary folds of the 

 epithelium. These are found only in the funnel region. But 

 there they occur well towards the anterior end. The presence 

 of glandular structures in the funnel region has not hitherto 

 been recognized. (3) In all parts of the oviduct between the 

 funnel and the vagina there is a thick layer of glands beneath 

 the epithelium. I have called these tubular glands. They con- 

 sist of long convoluted and branched tubules which open to the 

 lumen of the oviduct by short epithelial ducts. These tubular 

 glands are homologous, structurally at least, with the glandular 

 grooves of the funnel. The tubular glands reach their greatest 

 development in the albumen secreting region. Histologically 

 the unicellular epithelial glands present a similar appearance in 

 all parts of the oviduct except the vagina. In this latter region 

 the cells are longer and much narrower and have a slightly 

 different arrangement than in other parts of the oviduct. 



4. The walls of the tubular glands consist of large gland 

 cells which in the albumen portion and the isthmus of a laying 

 hen have small, irregularly shaped, dark staining nuclei which 

 lie well towards the basal ends of the cells. In these two 

 regions the protoplasm of the cells consist of rather coarse 

 granules which vary greatly in size. 



5. The line of demarcation between the albumen region and 

 the isthmus is characterized by the absence of these tubular 

 glands in that region. The cells of the tubular glands in the 

 albumen region and in the isthmus present the same histological 

 appearance. 



6. In the uterus the cells which form the tubular glands have 

 a somewhat different appearance. The nuclei of these cells 

 are large with regular outlines and are situated near the center 

 of the cells. The protoplasm is very finely granular and is quite 

 different from the coarsely granular condition found in other 

 parts of the oviduct. 



7. The tubular glands or any homologous structures are 

 entirely absent from the vagina. Only the unicellular epithelial 

 glands occur here. 



8. In the last section of the paper some suggestions are 

 offered as to the probable function of the various glandular 

 structures in the different parts of the oviduct. 



