of Edinburgh , Session 1885 - 86 . 
677 
when the body of the worm is opened. I am hound to conclude, 
therefore, that M. Perrier’s remarks on the structure of the female 
generative apparatus in Eudrilus represent a lucky guess partly 
expressing the truth; in this case I may claim for myself the dis- 
covery of the true relations of the ovary to the oviduct in Eudrilus. 
Another fact, which shows plainly that the structure which I have 
described as an oviduct is really so, and not a diverticulum of the 
spermatheca, is its ciliation ; I cannot state positively that the ovi- 
duct is ciliated throughout, but in its distal portion nearest to the 
ovary the cilia were here and there extremely conspicuous ; a few of 
these cells are drawn on fig. 7 of the Plate. I am not acquainted 
with any earthworm in which either the spermatheca or its diverti- 
cula are ciliated ; and, indeed, the presence of cilia would he useless 
in a pouch which serves for the storage of the spermatozoa. 
In fig. 76 of plate iv. of his memoir, M. Perrier has figured a 
portion of the ovary of Eudrilus. The figure illustrates the trabe- 
culae of muscular or connective tissue which hound the several com- 
partments of which the organ is composed; the ova are represented 
as being surrounded by a granular mass, which entirely fills up 
the space separating the ovum or ova from the trabeculae ; this, as 
I have already stated, is not a homogeneous mass, hut is evidently 
composed of small closely packed cells, some of which are young 
ova, while others form a definite single layered follicular epithelium 
immediately surrounding the ovum. 
The female genital apparatus of Eudrilus differs, therefore, from 
that of other Oligochaeta, — 
(1) In the connection of the oviduct with the spermatheca; 
(2) In the continuity of the ovary and its duct ; 
(3) In the complicated structure of the ovaries ; and, 
(4) In the presence of a definite columnar follicular epithelium 
surrounding the mature ovum. 
A discussion of these several points naturally follows : — 
(1) The connection of the oviduct with the spermatheca is a 
novelty in the group ; hut, at the same time, it must he remembered 
that the structure which I have identified with the spermatheca, 
following Perrier, may not really he the morphological equivalent 
of the spermatheca of Lumbricus or Perichceta. The position of 
