In their origin from the conus the four afferent branchial arteries of _Protopterus_ resemble those of _Neoceratodus_, but their relations to the branchial clefts are somewhat different (Fig. 201). The first or hyoidean cleft is closed, and the first afferent vessel lies between the second cleft and the third, and is therefore in relation with the second branchial arch. The remaining afferent arteries are disposed between the succeeding clefts and are related to the corresponding arches. As the second and third arches, like the vestigial first arch, bear no gill-lamellae, their afferent arteries are directly continuous with the corresponding efferent vessels, as in those Teleosts in which certain arches are gill-less, as well as in the Tadpole-stage of the tailless Amphibia when the internal gills begin to degenerate; and they apparently transmit arterial blood directly to the dorsal aorta.[391] The third and fourth afferent arteries, on the contrary, supply venous blood to the two hemibranchs which are borne by each of the two corresponding arches, viz.: the fourth and fifth, and from each pair of hemibranchs the blood is collected into two efferent vessels which unite dorsally {341}to form an epibranchial artery. From the dorsal end of the fourth afferent artery there arises a recurrent branch which curves round the upper margin of the sixth cleft and supplies the gill-lamellae on the posterior margin of that cleft, a fact which lends support to the view that these lamellae are "emigrants" from the anterior margin of the cleft; the efferent vessel from the "emigrant" lamellae joins the fourth epibranchial artery. The blood-supply of the external or cutaneous gills is derived from the dorsal extremities of the second, third, and fourth afferent arteries, while the efferent vessels from these organs join the corresponding epibranchial arteries; in this respect there is a close resemblance between _Protopterus_ and those larval Amphibians which possess similar cutaneous gills. All four epibranchial arteries unite together at about the same point to form a short common trunk, the right or left dorsal aorta, which subsequently unites with its fellow to form the median dorsal aorta. There is a so-called "hyoidean" artery, which, however, has its origin, not from an anterior efferent branchial vessel as in _Neoceratodus_, but from the first _afferent_ branchial artery. After giving off a submaxillary or lingual artery, the "hyoidean" artery (_af_) becomes the afferent vessel for the "opercular gill" or "hyoidean pseudobranch,"[392] and supplies the latter with arterial blood. The efferent vessel (_ef_) from the pseudobranch unites with the four epibranchial arteries in forming the right or left dorsal aorta. A "carotid" artery arises from the efferent vessel of the "hyoidean pseudobranch," and a pulmonary artery has its origin from the root of the dorsal aorta of its side, and not from the fourth epibranchial artery as in _Neoceratodus_.