OVTTM IN THE CAPE AND NEW ZEALAND PEUIPATUS. 275 



The Maturation of tlie Ovum in the Cape and 

 New Zealand Species of Peripatus. 



By 



I<ilian Sbeldon, 



Bathurst Student, Newnbam College, Cambridge. 



With Plates XXIX, XXX aud XXXI. 



Description of Material. 



The species of which I had the most complete supply is 

 Peripatus capensis, and consequently I have been able to 

 obtain a more satisfactory account of the events attending the 

 maturation of the ovum in it than in either of the other two. 



The material consisted of ovaries taken from females in July, 

 September, October, December, January, and March. During 

 April females were killed almost every day, and both the ovary 

 and the eggs in the uterus were preserved, so that I have a 

 large number of ova before the beginning of the segmentation. 

 The supply of P. Balfouri is smaller, but of that species also 

 there was a fair number of prse-segmentation ova preserved 

 during April. 



Of P. novffi-zealandise I have a much smaller supply. 

 It consists of a few ovaries of July, April, December, and 

 January, and some unsegmented ova taken from the uterus in 

 December. 



The specimens were preserved in various ways, and the 

 results obtained in all the methods were the same. My work 

 was done entirely on sections, of which it was easy to obtain 



