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Show 548 MR. R TRIMEN ON BIPALIUM KEWENSE. [June 23, diverticulum, which joins the duct of the spermatheca just as it perforates the longitudinal muscular layer on its way to the exterior, has delicate muscular walls consisting of circular oblique and longitudinal muscle-fibres well supplied with blood-capillaries; the interior is lined with a delicate epithelium, the cells of which are so excessively thin that hardly anything of them is recognizable but the nuclei; this epithelium contrasts very conspicuously with the tall columnar cells which line the cavity of the spermatheca. The diverticula agree in their minute structure with the spermathecae of Urochata; it does not appear likely that they are immature considering their large size and the fully mature condition of the W o r m. The ovaries and oviducts occupy the usual position ; the oviducts appear to open separately at either extremity of the slit-like female orifice; I a m not, however, absolutely certain about this. It is interesting to note the great difference in the spermathecal diverticula of this species and of Acanthodrilus (see Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 829) as regards their histological structure. 7. On Bipalium kewense at the Cape. By ROLAND TRIMEN, F.R.S. &c. [Received June 7, 1887.] The characteristic figures of this Planarian given by Prof. Jeffrey Bell (Proc. Zool, Soc. 1886, pl. xviii.), together with Prof. Moseley's diagnosis of the species (Ann. & Mug. Nat. Hist. 5th ser. 1878, i. p. 237), have enabled m e to identify it with a worm of which a good many specimens were brought to m e in the years 18S3-1885. Most of the examples were found by M r . U. Chalwin, of the Botanic Gardens, Cape Town, from whom, on the 20th of January, 1883, I received the first and largest individual I have seen. I sent five specimens to Prof. Moseley in M a y 1883, along with some Peripatus specimens forwarded to M r . A. Sedgwick ; but it was not till the end of 1885 that I learned from Prof. Moseley the generic position of the worm. Five living specimens have recently been sent to m e by Mr. Chalwin, and the comparison of them with the figures and diagnosis referred to leaves no doubt of their being B. kewense. Unfortunately the circumstances of its occurrence here throw no light on the proper habitat of the species, as all the examples (20) brought to me, and others of which I have been informed, were found in gardens. No instance of the discovery of the worm in a wild uncultivated station is known to me. Mr. Chalwin found most of his specimens under flower-pots or plant-cases standing on damp garden-mould, sometimes in ordinary glass frames, but others occurred among damp grass. I have not found this Bipalium exhibit here the extreme sensitiveness to light mentioned by Prof. Bell (I. c. p. I 68). It is certainly more active at night, but several of m y specimens have lived with apparent unconcern in glass jars (provided with water, earth, and |
