The vagina in the largest species is, by the standards of mere mortals, an extraordinarily capacious device: Elephants do not have the biggest vaginas but they are quite impressive in the magnitude of their genital apparatus. In the female elephant the vagina is a "simple, capacious tube which measures nearly 50cm. in length." We may expect this channel to expand considerably upon insertion of the male organ. It is of some interest that the female genital channel comes equipped with a large transversely placed hymen. The largest vagina in the animal kingdom is unquestionably that of the whale. This need hardly surprise us as the female whale has to accommodate the largest animal penis. In the words of one writer (Marshall's "Physiology of Reproduction, 1," 1, p.99) "the vulva is a long elliptical groove which lies immediately cranial to the anus." The longest whale vagina is in the order of 6 to 8 ft. in length, capable of further elongation if necessary upon penile insertion.