OF  THE  EEPEODUCTIVE  OEGANS  OF  THE  ANNELIDS. 
109 
lings,  may  be  traced  with  perfect  clearness  to  comparatively  narrow  peduncles  {g,  g). 
These  peduncles,  when  minutely  and  successfully  dissected  out,  will  be  found  to  connect 
themselves  intimately  with  the  roots  of  the  ciliated  tubes  or  special  “ segmental  organs” 
of  the  same  annular  spaces.  If  now  the  peduncles  and  the  attached  tubes  be  cut  away 
by  a curved  scissors  as  near  as  possible  to  the  abdominal  surface,  and  then  placed  on  a 
glass  slide  so  as  to  admit  of  being  examined  under  the  microscope,  it  will  be  discovered 
that  the  tube  and  peduncle  of  the  testicular  mass  run  into  one  another  (as  shown  in 
fig.  7 a,  J,  c)  and  that  the  outlet  [d)  is  common  to  the  peduncle  {a)  and  the  ciliated 
tube  [h).  This  outlet  cannot  be  detected  on  the  external  tegumentary  surface  of  the 
animal;  it  is  far  too  minute  and  closely  contracted.  No  orifice  can  be  discovered 
even  in  specimens  preserved  in  spirits.  But  its  position  may  be  clearly  ascertained  by 
the  position  of  the  attached  extremity,  internally,  of  the  ciliated  tube.  The  confluence 
of  the  peduncle  of  the  testes  and  base  of  the  ciliated  tube  is  a fact  of  great  homological 
value.  It  proves  that  the  generative  gland  is  an  outgrowth  from,  and  organically  the 
development  of  the  “ segmental  organ.” 
It  is  a fact  which  brings  the  generative  system  of  this  worm,  hitherto  so  incompre- 
hensible, within  the  rule  which  governs  the  formation  of  this  system  in  the  Annelida  in 
general*. 
The  two  ciliated  tubes,  one  on  either  side,  which  are  contained  in  this  testicular  ring, 
difier  in  no  respect  whatever  from  those  (fig.  5)  of  the  non-generative  rings,  but  in  that 
of  size.  They  are  considerably  larger  than  the  latter,  so  much  so  as  to  be  quite  \isible 
to  the  naked  eye. 
The  botryoidal  vascular  appendage  (fig.  5,  g g)  exhibits  the  same  character.  The 
tubal  portion  [j  e)  is  only  more  densely  coiled  and  complicated.  The  umbrella-shaped 
extremity  is  very  large,  and  the  cilia  act  with  great  force.  Neither  Hering,  De  Quatre- 
FAGES,  nor  Gegenbauer  allude  anywhere  in  their  writings  to  the  fact,  which  is  so  signi- 
ficant in  a homological  sense,  of  the  increased  size  of  the  ciliated  tubes  of  the  generative 
segments  in  Lumbricus. 
Before  proceeding  to  investigate  the  contents  of  the  second  (from  behind  forwards) 
generative  ring,  it  is  material  that  the  dissector  should  convince  himself  that  in  the  first 
ring  nothing  connected  with  the  reproductive  organs  is  contained  but  the  testes  and  the 
ciliated  tubes  just  described.  No  ducts  crossing  the  space  can  be  discovered,  no  ovaries 
or  sacculi  of  any  description. 
There  is  therefore  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  viscera  bounded  by  the  septa  of 
this  ring  are  distinct  and  independent,  and  wholly  unconnected  with  those  of  the  adja- 
cent rings,  and  that  they  communicate  externally  by  separate  ducts  whose  openings  are 
within  the  limits  of  this  ring.  This  ring,  then,  is  exclusively  dedicated  to  the  male 
organs.  In  this  particular  it  difiers  from  the  generative  annulus  in  Nais,  in  which  the 
* In  the  excellent  paper  already  referred  to,  Hering  speaks  in  several  places  of  the  constant  connexion 
between  the  “ schleifenformigen  Organe,”  ciliated  tubes  and  the  ovaries  and  testes.  But  the  mere  proximity, 
of  which  he  speaks,  is  very  different  from  the  view  maintained  in  the  text. 
Q 
MDCCCLVIII. 
