1887 .] 
Mr Frank E. Beddard on Earthworms. 
169 
peculiar cells, rounded and of large size, and each furnished with a 
distinct nucleus. These cells are evidently larger in proportion, and 
not so columnar as the corresponding cells in the pyriform vesicle 
of Urobenus ; the rest of the gland lying to the outside of these 
cells is occupied (fig. 5) by a granular substance, with minute darkly 
staining bodies scattered throughout it (nuclei '?). The lumen 
ceases some little way in front of the apex of the gland, which is 
here entirely made up of the granular nucleated substance. It is 
permeated by blood capillaries derived from the vessels which 
supply the nephridia. The pear-shaped glandular region of the 
pyriform vesicle has the structure just described ; distally it com- 
municates with a slender muscular duct, which passes gradually 
into the substance of the gland. The latter is bent upon itself, 
as indicated in Perrier’s figure, so that the duct runs parallel with 
the gland. But while in U. corethrurus and in Urobenus the duct 
is directed towards the nerve cord, the flexure in my Urochoeta is 
exactly in the opposite direction. The rounded cells lining the 
lumen gradually decrease in importance, and the granular substance, 
with its interspersed nuclei lying to the outside of these cells, 
eventually disappears ; coinciclently with these charges the duct of 
the gland acquires a delicate muscular coat, and the lining epithelium 
finally becomes a flattened layer of cells. I have traced this 
muscular sac to its opening on to the exterior in common with the 
nephridium. Fig. 4 shows the termination of the duct in the 
rosette-like organ which here as elsewhere guards the orifice of 
the nephridium. The pyriform vesicle, therefore, is anatomically 
a diverticulum of the nephridial duct in this species. 
Spermathecoe . — These organs are present to the number of 
three pairs ; they are situated in segments 7, 8, and 9, and 
the aperture is in each case placed quite close to the anterior 
margin of the segment. The sperm athecse of this species 
are excessively delicate organs, and are often for this reason 
difficult to distinguish ; they are also of very small size, as 
compared with the spermatheca of many other worms. The 
smallness of size is manifest rather in their breadth than in 
their length ; when stretched out they reach rather further than 
across the segment which contains them. These organs are some- 
what club-shaped ; the distal region is extremely narrow, but widens 
