673 
of Edinburgh, Session 1885-86. 
possible reconnaitre des ceufs avec tous leur elements caracteris- 
tiques.” I presume from this account, and from the figure ( loc . cit ., 
pi. ii. fig. 26, o) which illustrates it, that M. Perrier means to imply 
that in this earthworm the ovary is not only fixed on to the 
spermatheca, but that it actually communicates with the exterior 
through its lumen ; that the spermatheca, in fact, serves not merely 
as a receptacle for the semen, but also as an oviduct. This is not 
stated in so many words by Perrier, and writers of text-books have 
not quoted this fact in describing the female generative organs of 
the Annelida. I find, however, that M. Perrier’s statements are in 
a way correct, and as the matter is one of importance, from the 
general point of view of the morphology of the generative organs 
and their ducts in Annelids, I think it worth while to enter more 
fully into the subject. 
The opportunity to do so has been afforded by the kindness of 
Mr E. L. Layard, H.B.M. Consul at Noumea. Among a number of 
earthworms sent to me from New Caledonia, were several specimens 
of a species of Eudrilus, which appears to be not far removed from 
Perrier’s E. peregrinm. As this species and one other are natives 
of the West Indies, while the third species is from Bio Janeiro, 
the genus being thus a New World genus, I am inclined to think 
that the New Caledonian species has been imported, and is not 
indigenous to that island.* 
By comparing together a complete series of sections, and checking 
the results by help of a careful dissection under a lens, I have been 
able to make out the relations of the different parts of the female 
generative apparatus. Plate XXV. fig. 1, illustrates these organs as 
seen under a lens previous to any dissection ; in fig. 2 the different 
parts are separated from each other, and are seen to consist — (1) of 
a thick-walled muscular vagina (v), which is continuous above with 
(2), a somewhat pear-shaped thin-walled pouch, the spermatheca ; 
at the junction of the spermatheca with the vagina open two ducts, 
one on each side ; (3) the long coiled oviduct od, terminating in 
(4) the ovary ; on the other (5) a small rounded gland al , which 
is almost sessile upon the vagina, communicating with its lumen by 
a very short duct. 
* Mr Layard, however, informs me that there is no direct communication 
between New Caledonia and South America. 
