I have entered on this subject at some length, (and I wish I had space for more illustrations,) from its offering, perhaps, the most curious point in the natural history of the Cirripedia. It is the one chief character of the Sub-class. I am well aware how extremely improbable it must appear, that part of an ovarian tube should be converted into a gland, in which cellular matter is modified, so that instead of aiding in the development of new beings, it forms itself into a tissue or substance, which leaves the body[15] in order to fasten it to a foreign support. But on no other view can the structure, clearly seen by me both in the mature Cirripede and in the larva, be explained, and I feel no hesitation in advancing it. I may here venture to quote the substance of a remark made by Professor Owen, when I communicated to him the foregoing facts, namely, that there was a new problem to solve,--new work to perform,--to attach permanently a crustacean to a foreign body; and that hence no one could, _a priori_, tell by what singular and novel means this would be effected. [15] The protrusion of the egg-bearing pouches in Cyclops and its kindred genera, outside the body, offers a feeble analogy with what takes place in Cirripedes. Professor Allman (‘Annals of Natural History,’ vol. xx, p. 7,) who has attended to the subject, says that the external egg-bearing pouches are “a portion of the membrane of the true ovaries:” if the membrane of these pouches had been specially made adhesive, the analogy would have been closer. _Filamentary Appendages._--These have generally been considered to act as branchiæ; they occur at the bases of the first pair of cirri in Lepas, Alepas, Conchoderma, and in three species of Pollicipes: in Conchoderma there are similar appendages attached to the pedicels of the cirri (Pl. IX, fig. 4, _g-k_); and in the above three species of Pollicipes there is a double row of them on the prosoma: their numbers differ in different species (in some there being none) of the same genus, and even in different individuals of the same species; they are entirely absent in the majority of the genera. These facts would indicate that they are not of high functional importance; and they seem so generally occupied by testes (Pl. iv, fig. 5), that I suspect their function is quite as much to give room for the development of these glands, as to serve for respiratory purposes. With the exception of the four above-named genera, the mere surface of the body and of the sack must be sufficient for respiration: in _Conchoderma aurita_ the two great expansions of surface, afforded by the folded, tubular, ear-like projections, aid, as I believe, towards this end.