OX ANNELIDA. 
127 
also very complicated in this genus of animals, first, because 
the two sexes exist in each individual, and secondly, because 
each of the sexual organs is very much developed. 
The female sex is composed of several parts, all accumu- 
lated at a little distance from the posterior genital orifice, 
which belongs to it. There are at first two ovaries, ovoid, 
or sub-globular, placed in front of the orifice ; from each of 
these springs a very short oviduct, but by its union to its 
congener is formed a single canal, directed from behind 
forwards, and projecting almost entire into a pouch or sort of 
matrix with distinct parietes, mucous and contractile, and the 
neck of which is extended as far as the external orifice. 
The male sex is still more complicated, and much more 
extended. It is formed of a complex secretory organ, of an 
excretory canal with epididymis, and finally of an excitatory 
organ with its sheath. 
The secretory organ is composed of a series of small white 
globular masses on each side of the intestinal canal, between 
the sinuses of the stomach, contained in the cellular tissue, 
but certainly without any adherence to the skin. Each little 
mass is nothing but a white vesicle with very slender pa- 
rietes, and contains a whitish fluid. Each of these fur- 
nishes a small white canal, which is soon united to a 
common canal, situated at the external side of the series, and 
which advances directly, making, however, many sinuosities 
from rear to front. When this canal has arrived towards the 
genital region, its diameter diminishes in a sensible manner, 
and it comes in connexion with a white ovaliform mass, 
which seems formed by the crowded convolutions of this 
canal, so as to represent the disposition of the cerebral con- 
volutions in the mammifera. From this mass issues a dis- 
tinct canal, cemented against it, and which terminates at the 
root of the sheath of the excitatory organ. This sheath, con- 
