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REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLII : 
plumosa, MiilL), which Rathke observed in the slimy bottom of the sea 
on the Norwegian coast. It has sixty-four rings, each of which has two 
pair of bundles of bristles ; the bristles are simple, longitudinally striated 
on the upper surface, and furnished on the inner with moderately thick 
transverse septa. The whole upper surface of the body is rough, with 
small close set warts, which secrete slime ; the epidermis has an olive 
green, and the corium a slight rosy hue. The four cornered opening of 
the mouth is situated at the anterior end of the body, in a short, almost 
infundibuli-form proboscis ; close upon this are found two whitish con- 
tractile tentacles, which are provided with a longitudinal furrow ; behind 
these tentacles there are eight cirri, twisted, round, and of a greenish 
colour ; they stand in two rows behind one another. The animal can 
draw all these parts completely within the body ; when stretched out, 
they lie protected under the long bundles of bristles of the first two 
rings. The contents of the intestinal canal appeared to be an animal 
pap, mixed with earth and sand. The blood of this worm is intensely 
green. Rathke also corrects Otto’s description of Siphonostoma diplo- 
chaitos, in so far as to have shown, that the double mouth, which Otto 
ascribed to this animal, is only the efifect of the too close approximation 
of the opposite lateral margins of the otherways simple mouth. Costa 
has also corrected this error (Archiv. 1842, B. ii. p. 322). 
Milne Edwards (Ann. des Sc. Nat. tom. xviii. 1842, p. 126) has given 
an account of the internal structure of the anomalous Peripatusjuliformis, 
from which it appears, that this creature is not a Myriapod, but should 
be correctly enrolled among the Annelides. 
We learn, from a minute anatomical investigation which Krohn has 
made of Sternaspis thalassemoides (MiilL Arch. f. Physiol. 1842, 
p. 426) that Otto had looked at this worm in the reversed position, and 
has described the posterior parts as the anterior. Its proboscis, according 
to Krohn’s account, is an anal tube ; and the vesicula analis, mentioned 
by Otto, points out, externally, the position of the brain at the anterior 
end of the body. The little tufts, situated under the two oval marks 
(verrucae frontales, Otto), close above the anal tube, Krohn has recog- 
nised as blood-vessels. The sexual organs lie in the posterior cavity of 
the body, and contain, in the male individuals, seminal threads, and in 
the female, distinct eggs. 
Leuckart (Zoolog. Bruchstiicke, ii. 1841, p. 104) has described an in- 
teresting Annelide, Geoscolex maocimus, which was found in loam in 
Brazil, not far from Rio Janeiro. Its length was three feet three inches ; 
but when in life it must have been eight or nine feet. Preserved in 
spirits of wine, it has now a blackish-brown colour. It belongs to the 
setigerous Annelides, and stands very near Lumbricus. Leuckart has 
characterized the genus under the name of Geoscolex, as follows: — 
Corpore lumbriciformi, ore bilabiate, labiis latis, ab annuli primi mar- 
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