OCR Text |
Show 1904.] ANATOMY OF THE LACERTILIA. 443 gives off a very slender twig, which appears to enter the vena cava and then plunges into the parietes to the right of the middle line. The posterior branch runs over the kidney and becomes continuous with the vena renalis advehens, which enters the kidney at about the middle of its length. The last vein leaving the oviduct is, as I believe-though I am unable to be quite certain-continuous with the caudal affluent of the kidney. Suprarenal Portal veins.-These vessels are more complicated in Iguana than they are in Tiliqua or, according to Hochstetter's figure, in Lacerta viridis. There are two series of these veins, distinguished by their greater or less length. One specimen possessed five of the longer vessels and three of the shorter on each side. The shorter ones correspond to the suprarenal Text-fig. 92. Ovarian and suprarenal veins of Iguana tuberculata. Od., oviducal veins; Ov., ovary; Ov.v., ovarian vein of opposite ovary; Sr.v., shorter, Sr.v.', longer suprarenal veins; Vci., vena cava. portals present in Tiliqua; and, as in that lizard, they arise from the body-wall not far from the ventral median line. Of the longer vessels, which emerge from the body-wall much further away from the ventral median line, there were five in one specimen, of which three, on the left side of the body, united before reaching the suprarenal body. Some at least of these longer vessels are connected, as already mentioned, with the posterior vertebral vein. In the other specimen of Iguana there was an interesting modification of this arrangement. The last three vessels of the longer series, at any rate on one side of the body, instead of passing to |