196 MR FRANK E. BEDDARD ON 



passes so gradually into the clitellar epidermis that it is quite impossible to say where 

 one leaves off and the other begins. In any case, the nine segments mentioned un- 

 questionably belong to the clitellum. 



The male reproductive apparatus is very peculiar in several points — notably in the 

 "prostate glands." Eisen's figure (Zoe, vol. ii., PL xiv. fig. 1) gives the general appear- 

 ance of the entire reproductive system as seen when the worm is viewed as a transparent 

 object. I find, however, on checking that figure by longitudinal sections, that one or two 

 points are not fully shown. 



There are, as is there shown, two pairs of funnels by which the vasa deferentia 

 communicate with the body cavity. They are represented by Eisen as all lying in one 

 segment — the ninth. Dr Eisen reckons the prostomium as a segment; therefore, in accord- 

 ance with the majority of naturalists, we may consider this segment to be the tenth. I 

 find that the arrangement is not precisely as figured by Eisen. There are a pair of vasa 

 deferentia funnels in the tenth segment, one on each side of the body of course. But 

 the second pair, instead of lying in the same segment, are a segment further forward, i.e. 

 in the ninth segment. This arrangement is more like that met with in other Lumbri- 

 culidse, where one pair of funnels is in the segment which contains the atrial pores, and 

 the other pair a segment in front of this. A very remarkable fact about these two pairs 

 of funnels was the marked difference in size. The posterior pair were much larger than 

 the anterior pair. Not only was this the case, but the tube arising from the posterior 

 funnel was stouter than that arising from the anterior funnel. Concerning the opening 

 of the vasa differentia into the atrium, Eisen remarks, " The exact place where the 

 efferent ducts enter the atrium I have not been able to ascertain, but most probably 

 this takes place in the extreme posterior part, possibly in somite XVIII." 



As will be seen from the accompanying figure (fig. 2) one vas deferens does join the 

 atrium at the extreme posterior end, running alongside it up to that point ; but the 

 other enters the atrium just at the point where it (the atrium) becomes invested by the 

 prostates. This latter vas deferens is the stouter one, which is connected with the 

 posterior funnel. The atrium itself is a long narrow tube, ciliated throughout the whole 

 extent. It communicates with the exterior by a muscular penis which has been described 

 by Eisen ; I have nothing to add to his description of this copulatory apparatus, except 

 to say that I did not observe the glands at the external orifice. When the atrium 

 leaves the penis it is coiled upon itself once or twice ; it is lined by a columnar 

 epithelium, and is invested by muscular walls, the fibres of which run for the most part 

 in a longitudinal direction ; from the eleventh segment onwards the atrium is loosely 

 covered by a thin membrane which lies at some distance from it, and later on comes to 

 be outside the prostates and the sperm-sacs. This membrane looks like the peritoneal 

 investment of the atrium which has got detached. That region of the atrium which is 

 surrounded by the prostates is not ciliated ; the prostates are globular masses, of which 

 there were five in the individual which I examined. Eisen figures seven ; no doubt 

 there is some variation in individuals. Besides, the membrane, which has already been 



