70 HABITS OF WORMS. CHAP. II. 



for it is clear that they would not have failed 

 in drawing them in by the base or middle. 



The leaves of a foreign plant were next 

 searched for, the blades of which were not 

 more pointed towards the apex than towards 

 the base. This proved to be the case with 

 those of a laburnum (a hybrid between 

 Cytisus alpinus and laburnum) for on doubling 

 the terminal over the basal half, they gene- 

 rally fitted exactly ; and when there was 

 any difference, the basal half was a little the 

 narrower. It might, therefore, have been 

 expected that an almost equal number of 

 these leaves would have been drawn in by the 

 tip and base, or a slight excess in favour of 

 the latter. But of 73 leaves (not included in 

 the first lot of 227) pulled out of worm- 

 burrows, 63 per cent, had been drawn in by 

 the tip ; 27 per cent, by the base, and 10 per 

 cent, transversely. We here see that a far 

 larger proportion, viz., 27 per cent, were 

 drawn in by the base than in the case of 

 lime leaves, the blades of which are very 

 broad at the base, and of which only 4 per 

 cent, had thus been drawn in. We may 

 perhaps account for the fact of a still larger 



