82 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



body from seventy to eighty. I took an example the 

 other day with sixty segments behind the chteUum. 

 The ditelhim often varies in colour from the rest of 

 the body, which it sometimes appears to encircle 

 entirely. It commences on the 22 nd segment usually, 

 and extends to the 27th, but the glandular :cells of 

 the clitellum extend to other segments as well. The 

 male pore is on the 13th segment, and may be easily 

 recognised, as it runs parallel with the segment- 

 divisions, and is placed on either side of the body, 

 somewhat on the under-surface, or ventrally. Beddard 

 thinks the spermathecns are on segment 8, which bears 

 also rod-shaped setre.* The dorsal pores commence 

 between the 3rd and 4th or the 4th and 5th segments. 

 The ordinary setae are similar to those of our other 

 native worms, but I have found minute processes on 

 the extremity which projects outwards, similar to those 

 described on some foreign species. The internal 

 extremity is attached to its sac by fine muscular 

 threads. They have a itendency to split up into 8 

 rows rather than appear in 4 pairs, and are about 2 

 centimetres long, or nearly half the width of the 

 body. The tiibercida ptihertatis are said to occur on 

 the 22nd, 23rd and 24th segments, I have so far 

 failed to see them. For external characters, the 

 following works may be consulted in addition to 

 those already given. Grube, " Familien der Annel- 

 iden," 1851, p. 145; Oerley, "A Magyarors zagi 

 Oligochastak Fatmaja," 18S0, p. 598-601 ; Rosa, " I 

 Lumbricidi del Piemonte," Torino, 1884, p. 51 ; Ude, 

 "Zeitschrift fiir Wissen. Zool.," 1885, p. 139; 

 Johnston, " Catalogue of British Worms," p. 61. 



Owing to the small size attained by Allurus, it is 

 somewhat difficult to dissect the worm in the ordinary 

 way, so as to obtain perfectly reliable results, and it 

 therefore becomes necessary to prepare sections by 

 the microtome. My results differ slightly in some 

 respects from those of Beddard.* He gives the gizzard 

 one segment only (viz. the 17th), whereas in the worms 

 I have examined the crop occupied 15 and 16, the 

 gizzard 17 and 18, Thenephridia seem to commence 

 in segment 7. I have found 5 pairs of '^seminal 

 reservoirs in segments 8-12 inclusive, being one pair 

 more than Beddard reports. I find 2 pairs of sperm- 

 athecse, one in segment 8, and one in segment 9, and 

 the calciferous glands, of which I find one pair, are in 

 segment 10, just in front of the middle pair of seminal 

 reservoirs. Here again I diffen from Beddard ; and 

 the most reasonable explanation of this fact, I think, 

 lies in the suggestion that we have been working on 

 distinct species which have not yet been differentiated. 

 In addition to what have been usually regarded as 

 typical specimens, I have met with a totally distinct 

 variety, which I formerly called flavus, but which I 

 find has been named luteus by Eisen. It is of a 

 beautiful, rich yellow colour, with orange clitellum, 



* My further researches, since this paper was written, clearly 

 point to the existence of at least two, if not more, distinct 

 species. 



and a good deal smaller than the type. I found it 

 plentifully by the Fclen, near Carlisle, in 1890, and 

 have taken one solitary specimen this year at Calverley,. 

 near Leeds. The following is a list of the species 

 and varieties hitherto named by authors, which will 

 probably shortly be amended and enlarged : I.. 

 AHurus tetracdnis (Eisen) ; 2. Alhirus amphishana 

 (Duges) ; 3. Alliims, var. obscuriis (Eisen) ; 4. 

 Allunis, var. hitciis (Eisen). 



For the anatomy one may consult Beddard ia 

 " Quart. Journ, Micr. Soc." 1888, Vol. vi., pt. ii., pp. 

 365-71, pi. XXV.; Rosa, "I Lumbricidi del Pie- 

 monte," p, 51 scq.; Ude, " Zeitschrift fiir Wiss. 

 Zool." 18S5, p. 139, &c. 



III. DISTRIBUTION OF ALLURUS. 



Eisen has described it from specimens found in 

 Sweden and Beddard from a single worm sent from 

 Teneriffe. Rosa has recorded it from North Italy ; 

 Oerley from Hungarj-, where also the varieties already 

 named exist. Hoffmeister found it in North 

 Germany, Duges in France (probably about Mont- 

 pellier), in which country more recent observers have 

 also collected it, but Kulagin does not mention it in 

 his recent enumeration of Russian species of earth- 

 worms. Oerley classes it as " Palaearktic." 



It was first mentioned as British by Johnston in 

 1865, a single specimen being at that time in the 

 British Museum. It was found in Devon, and I have 

 found it in Yorkshire and Cumberland, together with 

 the yellow variety. See Johnston's "Catalogue of 

 British Worms," p. 61 ; Beddard, op cit. p. 365 ; and 

 Oerley, "A Magyar. Oligochaetak Faunaja," 1880, 

 p. 599 et scq. 



LORD TENNYSON'S FLOWERS. 



NOW that the thrushes have begun their morning 

 and evening song, and the girls are offering 

 the bunches of wild snowdrops for sale in the streets,, 

 our hearts begin to long for the spring flowers (never 

 more prized than after this long and trying winter),, 

 and we begin to anticipate our coming pleasures by 

 turning to the favourite passages that tell of our 

 darlings. And who will bring the flowers of spring 

 and summer before us as well as Lord Tennyson? 

 Who else has distinguished, with suitable epithet, 

 one wayside flower from another, and given to his 

 exquisite landscapes the true finishing flower-touch?' 

 Other poets have sung in honour of flowers: Alfred 

 Austin has celebrated the primrose in charming 

 verse ; Wordsworth has immortalised the lesser 

 celandine ; Burns has glorified the "bonnie gem " — 

 the daisy — and thus re-echoed the praises of old 

 Chaucer ; but none has been at once so catholic in 

 taste, so accurate in localisation, so exquisite in 

 selection of epithet as the Laureate. This love of 



