APPENDIX. 



327 



hermaphrodite, there is no difficulty in meeting with a mate, as would 

 be the case were they of different sexes. 



" Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link 

 in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. 

 For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are 

 almost entirely supported by them*, worms seem to be great pro- 

 moters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, 

 by boring, perforating and loosening the soil, and rendering it per- 

 vious to rains, and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks 

 of leaves and twigs into itf ; and, most of all, by throwing up such 

 infinite numbers of lumps of earth called w^orm-casts, which being 

 their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms pro- 

 bably provide new soil for hills and slopes where the rain washes the 

 earth away ; and they affect slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. 

 Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former 

 because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much 

 work ; and the latter because, as they think, worms eat their green 

 corn. But these men would find that the earth without worms 

 would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation, and 

 consequently sterile;];." 



This species deposits its eggs in capsules at a considerable depth 

 in the soil. They are laid in spring, and the young are hatched in 

 summer, principally in the months of June and July. When of full 

 size the capsule is as large as a pea, elliptical, with a tubulous aperture 

 at one end, and a small point at the opposite pole. The shell is 

 horny, elastic, smooth, and semitransparent : it is filled with a puru- 

 lent-like matter, in which, in some capsules, no worm was visible ; 

 but in others the young worm was easily seen coiled up in the 

 interior. The foetal young escapes through the tubulous aperture, 

 and is then rather more than an inch long, and in every respect like 

 its parent, with the exception of there being no clitellus§. I have 

 seen a young worm escape from the capsule, crawl about for a short 



and plants, and such-like nutritive things, not pure earth." — Phys. Theology, 

 p. 399, Lond. 1732. — They appear to eat also living rootlets, for we know that 

 they injure plants grown in pots. 



* See Aldrov. de Insect, lib. vi. pp. 646 & 697. 



t " Soil is not loosened by boring through it, but rather rendered firmer in the 

 parts not bored through. So far from being rendered permeable by water in con- 

 sequence of the boi'es of worms, it is rendered less so, the worm-casts deposited 

 on the orifices of the bores always being water-tight ; so much so indeed, that, 

 when lawns where worms abound are to be watei-ed with lime-water in order to 

 destroy them, the first step is to brush away the casts with a long flexil)le rod, or 

 remove them with a rake, to let the water enter the bores." — Loud. Gard. Mag. 

 xvii. p. 216. — The writer considers the opinion that worms add to the soil as "a 

 delusion." 



J The edition I quote from is the 8vo one, in 2 vols. Lond. 1825. Sir William 

 Jardine has added an interesting note. See his illustrated edition, p. 152, Lond. 

 1853, 12mo. 



§ Cuvier thus states Montegre's opinion : — " Selon M. Montegre, les a3ufs de- 

 scendent entre I'intestin et I'enveloppe exterieui'c, jusqu'autour du rectum, oft ils 

 eclosent. Les petits sortent vivants par I'anus." — Reg. Anim. iii. p. 210. There is 

 something not very intelligible in this ; for how do the young obtain entrance into 

 the rectum ? 



