The tubular heart lies along the middle line in the anterior two-thirds of the abdomen, sometimes close up against the dorsal wall, but occasionally at some little distance from it, buried in the substance of the liver. It is a muscular tube with three pairs of lateral openings or “ostia,” each furnished with a simple valve which allows the entrance, but prevents the exit, of the blood. It is contained in a bag, the “pericardium,” into which the ostia open. Both heart and pericardium are kept in place by a complicated system of connective tissue strands, by which they are anchored to the dorsal wall of the abdomen. Eight arteries leave the heart, the principal one, or “aorta,” plunging downward and passing through the pedicle to supply the cephalothorax. Besides this, there is a caudal artery at the posterior end, and three pairs of abdominal arteries, which proceed from the under surface of the heart, and the ramifications of which supply, in a very complete manner, the various organs of the abdomen. The heart is not divided up into compartments. The anterior aorta passes through the pedicle, above the intestine, and presently forks into two main branches, which run along either side of the sucking stomach, near the front of which they bend suddenly downwards and end in a “patte d’oie,” as Causard[265] expresses it—a bundle of arteries which proceed to the limbs (Fig. 185). Where the downward curve begins, a considerable artery, the mandibulo-cephalic, runs forward to supply the chelicerae and the head region. We have omitted certain minor branches from the main trunks which supply the thoracic muscles. The nerve-mass receives fine vessels from the “patte d’oie.” [Illustration: FIG. 186.—Diagram of a Spider, _Epeira diademata_, showing the arrangement of the internal organs, × about 8. 1, Mouth; 2, sucking stomach; 3, ducts of liver; 4, so-called Malpighian tubules; 5, stercoral pocket; 6, anus; 7, dorsal muscle of sucking stomach; 8, caecal prolongation of stomach; 9, cerebral ganglion giving off nerves to eyes; 10, sub-oesophageal ganglionic mass; 11, heart with three lateral openings or ostia; 12, lung-sac; 13, ovary; 14, acinate and pyriform silk-glands; 15, tubuliform silk-gland; 16, ampulliform silk-gland; 17, aggregate or dendriform silk-glands; 18, spinnerets or mammillae; 19, distal joint of chelicera; 20, poison-gland; 21, eye; 22, pericardium; 23, vessel bringing blood from lung-sac to pericardium; 24, artery. ]