SEED-MASS ETC. ОЕ HELLEBORUS FŒTIDUS. 437 
I watered the ground gently, and shook seven more masses from the 
plant ; these contained 76 seeds, making in all 19 masses and 209 seeds to 
account for. These seven masses made one more row of 4 and another 
of 3. 
At 10.30 р.м., still on July 4th, there were three /eliv aspersa and one. 
Helix rufescens eating the strips; at midnight there were seven of the 
former and one of the latter, all busily feeding, and I regret that I did not 
notice whether the Мейх rufescens was still on the same mass as before. 
There was at this time one large worm busy with a portion of a mass 
composed of three seeds; he was evidently either eating or trying to drag 
it into his burrow. I noticed this with peculiar satisfaction ; for on 
previous oecasions I have found worms feeding upon the more ог less 
succulent capsules and seeds of the snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) and 
the large soft berries of Arum italicum, and | have subsequently found 
the remains of the berries and the seeds of the latter plant inside the 
burrows. 
On the morning of July 5th, at 7.45 A.M., two more masses had vanished, 
which, with the one missing the morning before, makes three altogether : 
the two newly missing ones were No. 17 of 11 seeds and No. 19 of 10 seeds. 
Here, again, they disappeared, whichever way we look at the diagram, from 
the end of an outside row ; and this curious little point may be of some 
significance, as we shall see when we deal with the Birds. Three seed- 
masses were still intact; as they were the same three as were left over 
the morning before (Nos. 2, 9, and 10, of 12, 12, and 14 seeds respectively),. 
probably the snails preferred the fresher ones. 
At 7 p.m. the same evening the position was unchanged ; the three whole 
masses were still i» statu quo: they were exactly where I had placed 
them originally, and this is of some importance, as will be clear in the next 
Section. 
I then proceeded to collect all the remains of the 19 masses and 209 seeds, 
and I have tabulated the results of these observations. 
On July 6th and 7th I left the plant alone, and it dropped a few more 
masses which were duly broken up by snails; but I kept no further record 
of the numbers. In the evening and during the night of July 7th rain fell 
heavily, and all the seeds were washed to the edge of the border. This 
journey was no doubt facilitated by the slope of the ground, and the 
contribution of rain-runnels to short-distance dispersal is, I am sure, pretty 
considerable for this and innumerable other species. 
It is perhaps just worth mention that here, and on subsequent occasions in 
a different part of the garden, where I experimented with the ants, Г have 
seen the small black garden-slug (Arion hortensis) feeding upon the strip in. 
the same manner as the snails; so that we have three distinct species of 
molluses acting as disintegrating agents, but not all to the same extent. 
