ORDER ABRANCHIA. 29 



and some whitish glands towards tho middle of the body, 

 which appear to serve the purposes of generation. It is cer- 

 tain that they are hermaphrodites; but it may be possible 

 that their approximation serves only to excite them mutually 

 to self-fecundation. According to Mr. Montague, the eggs 

 descend between the intestine and the external envelope, as 

 far as around the rectum, where they disclose. The young 

 ones come out alive through the anus. M. L. Dufour says, 

 on the contrary, that they form eggs analogous to those of the 

 Hirudines. The nervous cord is only a series of an infinity 

 of small ganglia, crowded one against the other. 



M. Savigny subdivides them again: his Enterion have 

 under each ring four pairs of little bristles, eight in all. 



Every body knows the common earth-ivorm, liimhricua 

 terrestris, L., with a reddish body, attaining nearly a foot in 

 length, with one hundred and twenty rings, and more. The 

 enlargement is towards the anterior third of the body ; under 

 the sixteenth ring ai"e two pores, the use of which is un- 

 known. 



This animal pierces the earth in all directions, and swallows 

 much of it ; it also eats roots, ligneous fibres, animal sub- 

 stances, &c. In the month of June it issues from the earth at 

 night, for the purposes of generation. 



What I have here mentioned is common to many species, 

 which M. Savigny was the first to distinguish : he has charac- 

 terized twenty of them. See my analysis of the labours of the 

 Academy of Sciences, 1821. M. Duges distinguishes six, 

 but he does not refer them exactly to those of M. Savigny. 



N. B. Muller and Fabricius speak of lumbrici, with two 

 setffi to each ring, of which M. Savigny proposes to form his 

 genus Clitellio, Lumh. minutus, Fab., Faun. Groenl. f. 4., 

 and of lumbrici with four or six setae ; but their descriptions, 

 which are old, have need of being confirmed ^nd completed, 

 before we can classify their species. 



