700 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [VoL. XXXIII. 
The peduncles were twisted, and each appeared to be hollow. 
The capsules were rather thin and seemed decidedly leathery 
when the eggs first reached us —as was always afterwards the 
case if the eggs were permitted to desiccate to any extent. 
After having imbibed water, however, which they did very 
eagerly, they became much thicker and more transparent and 
showed clearly their gelatinous nature. 
The capsules were almost perfect spheres, and in what might 
be considered their normal state as regards imbibed water, were 
about 6 mm. in diameter. When the capsules were moderately 
swollen, and their surfaces were washed clean, the black em- 
bryos and the very large yellow 
yolk-sacs could be distinctly 
seen through them; and many 
` details of structure were studied 
from day to day on the living 
specimens as they continued to 
develop. Figs. 5 and 6 were 
drawn from living specimens. 
Four days after they came 
into our possession one embryo 
was dissected from its capsule 
and was found to be 15.5 mm. 
long. Its fore and hind limbs were of nearly equal length and 
were about 2 mm. long. The toes had not yet appeared. 
The gills were very large, and were each composed of three 
broad membranous lobes (Figs. 5 and 6). 
The facts of special interest concerning the embryos, and 
which, consequently, we consider somewhat more in detail, are 
the following : 
(1) The Great Quantity of Yolk in the Eggs, and the Vitel- 
line Circulation.— The yolk-sac of the embryo, measurements 
of which are given above, was 5 mm. in diameter. This is a 
little more than twice the diameter, or eight times the mass of 
the eggs of Diemyctylus torosus, a species of about the same 
size as Autodax lugubris, but one in which the eggs have 
about the character, as regards yolk, of amphibian eggs in 
general. Whether or not the egg is meroblastic we have been 
Fic. 4. 
