4 INTRODUCTION. 



spermatozoa, when ripe or nearly ripe, pass into the vasa 

 deferentia, at the lower end of which they apparently become 

 packed together in small masses, which become surrounded by 

 a structureless coat, and are passed out as small, oval, white 

 spermatophores. 



The male generative organs of Peripatus ca'pensis con- 

 sist, therefore, of a pair of blind tubes, which are separate in 

 front, but united behind for a short distance to form a common 

 terminal portion (Balfour, loc. cit., fig. 43, p), and at the front 

 end of which are formed the mother-cells of the spermatozoa. 

 The latter fall into the cavity of the tube, and gradually de- 

 velop as they pass backwards towards the external orifice, the 

 main portion of the development taking place in a specially 

 dilated portion of the generative tube — a portion which may be 

 called a vesicula seminalis. 



I have never seen the extrusion of the common terminal 

 portion of the system, and I doubt very much whether it ever 

 is extruded so as to act as a penis. 



The Female Organs. — The ovary, though apparently a single 

 structure, is in reality paired, and consists of two tubes closely 

 applied together. The ova are derivatives of the epithelial 

 lining of these tubes. Each ovarian tube is continued into the 

 oviduct of its own side. The oviducts are uniited with one 

 another close to the ovaries; they are thin-walled, narrow 

 tubes, each of which is continued behind into a more dilated and 

 thicker-walled tube — the uterus. The uterus is of consider- 

 able length and much bent, and unites with its fellow close to 

 the single external opening, which lies in the middle line of 

 the ventral surface of the hind end of the body, just in front 

 of the anus. For figure of female organs, vide Moseley, loc. 

 cit., pi. 74, fig. 1, and Balfour, PI. XIX, fig. 33. 



From the above description it is evident that the organs of 

 the female, like those of the male, consist of two tubes united 

 behind near the external opening but ending blindly in front, 

 where the generative products are produced. 



The ovarian parts of the generative tubes are placed between 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth pairs of legs, and are united to the 



