528 M A RS I L E A C E J£ . 



lobes increase in consistency, appears more and more distinctly 

 pendulous from their mass, becomes gradually covered with 

 an incrustation. The joints of the moniliform bodies which 

 previously could be easily squeezed out through the foramen, 

 disappear about this period. 



When fully developed the organ presents scarcely if any 

 change of form : most of the cells of the surface are gorged 

 with pink fluid ; the apex is distinctly brown. The cavity 

 of the organ is occupied by a complex body, consisting of 

 two dissimilar parts ; the upper, which forms rather more 

 than the half, consisting of nine lobes (PI. CXXII. Fig I., 4. 

 and 5.) (the three uppermost of which are the largest,) 

 mutually united by a remarkable tissue, which on pulling 

 them from their places separates with them in the form of 

 fibrous radicellar prolongations (PI. CXXII, Fig. I., 11.) 

 This part (the upper loculus of Brown) is up to a certain pe- 

 riod perfectly homogeneous, and even when the nine lobes 

 are evidently cellular, the axis or common attaching portion 

 is grumous and homogeneous. It is by this tissue that the 

 whole mass hangs from the apex of the capsule which sepa- 

 rates with it in the shape of a conical calyptra, (PI. CXXII. 

 Fig. I., 2, 3.) presenting in the centre a brown mammilla 

 (the original foramen.) The mass is in apposition below 

 with the upper surface of the yellow sac ; the part of this 

 (i. e. the vertex) so in apposition not being covered by the 

 incrustation (PL CXXII. Fig. I.,6, 7- The yellow sac is 

 filled with oleaginous particles ; it presents on tli3 centre of 

 its upper face a trilinear mark (PI. CXXII. Fig. I.,7.) it is 

 separable from the incrustation, which presents an areolate 

 cellular-looking surface (PI. CXXII. Fig. I., 2, 4, 6) ; its 

 membrane is thick, of a waxy texture, and without markings 

 or any other indications of composition. (PI. CXXII. Fig. 

 1,10.) 



The changes in the other organ, appear only to affect the 

 protuberances round the base of the nucleus, which body 

 may be detected unchanged, as I have ascertained by meas- 



