84 
DR.  R.  E.  GRANT  ON  THE  ANATOMY  OF  SEPIOLA  VULGARIS, 
The  ovarium^  is  intimately  united  to  the  lower  extremity  of  the  first  stomach,  and 
occupies  the  base  of  the  sac.  It  consists  of  a  thin  membranous  cavity,  of  an  oval  form, 
filled  with  clusters  of  ova  hanging  from  its  upper  part.  The  ova^  exist  in  all  stages  of 
development  within  the  same  ovarium  :  the  smallest  are  white,  round  and  opaque  ;  the 
largest,  filled  with  a  gelatinous  substance  which  projects  from  the  open  extremities, 
exhibit  the  same  reticulate  white  markings  on  the  surface  which  we  observe  in  Sepia 
and  other  large  Cephalopoda.  All  the  ova  are  attached  to  the  extremities  of  ramified 
peduncles,  till  they  are  ready  to  pass  out  through  the  oviducts.  The  glands  of  the  ovi- 
ducts' lie  above  and  before  the  ovary,  and  have  here  a  rose-red  colour,  the  usual  lami- 
nated structure,  and  a  deep  sulcus  passing  up  along  their  anterior  and  posterior  sur- 
faces, almost  dividing  them  into  two  parts.  They  are  broad  and  rounded  at  their  lower 
extremity  next  the  ovarium,  and  become  much  narrower  at  their  upper  end :  they  are 
proportionally  very  large  in  this  animal,  and  receive  large  arteries  from  near  the  origin 
of  the  ventral  aorta.  In  the  female  of  this  animal  there  is  another  glandular  organ  of 
a  crescentic  form  and  opaque  yellow  colour,  lying  between  the  bases  of  the  glands  of 
the  oviducts,  and  which  appears  to  communicate  with  a  rose-coloured  sac  between  the 
upper  extremities  of  the  oviducts,  containing  numerous  small  convoluted  cceca.  In 
the  male,  which  is  comparatively  rare,  the  testicle*,  of  a  light  purple  colour,  and  lying 
at  the  bottom  of  the  cavity  of  the  mantle,  as  the  ovary  of  the  female,  consists  of  innu- 
merable minute  glandular  caca,  contained  in  a  loose  sac,  which  sends  out  a  vas  deferens 
to  a  wide  convoluted  epididymis.  This  terminates  in  a  slender  lengthened  tubular  penis^ 
on  the  left  side,  which  appears  to  possess  minute  appendices  at  its  termination,  like  the 
rectum. 
Thus  the  Sepiola,  the  minutest  of  the  Naked  Cephalopods,  possesses  a  structure  as 
complex  and  elaborate  as  that  of  the  largest  Octopus  or  Loligo.  By  the  magnitude  of 
its  cephalic  arms,  and  their  numerous  large  pedunculated  suckers,  it  compensates  for 
the  want  of  developed  suckers  on  its  long  tentacula.  By  the  great  development  of  its 
ink  gland,  and  the  magnitude  of  its  organs  of  vision,  it  compensates  for  the  want  of 
more  solid  means  of  protection.  The  rounded  form  of  its  body  required  the  dorsal 
lamina  to  be  shortened,  which  would  have  impeded  the  motions  of  the  mantle  had  it  ex- 
tended, as  in  Loligo,  to  its  extremity.  The  great  muscular  strength  of  its  dorsal  fins,  and 
the  mobility  of  their  scapulce,  give  rapid  and  varied  motion  to  this  delicate  and  defence- 
less animal ;  and  they  constitute  the  most  perfectly  developed  arms  of  this  class.  Its 
organs  of  secretion  are  all  largely  developed, — its  salivary,  hepatic,  pancreatic,  and  ink 
glands.  Its  digestive,  circulating,  and  respiratory  organs  are  constructed  according  to 
the  most  perfect  form  of  the  cephalopodic  type  ;  and  the  great  development  of  its  gene- 
rative apparatus  is  well-adapted  to  repair  the  rapid  destruction  of  its  race. 
A  very  large  specimen  of  Sepiola,  from  the  coast  of  the  Mauritius®,  was  lately  sent  to 
the  Zoological  Society  by  Charles  Telfair,  Esq.,  the  most  active  of  our  valuable  cor- 
'  Fig.  10.  c.       '  Fig.  12.       =>  Fig.  10.  d.d.       "  Fig.  11.  a.       '  Fig.  11.  d.       '  Plate  XI.  figg.  1.  2. 
