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CHAPTER IV. 



WORMS, SNAILS, SLUGS, INSECTS, REPTILES, BIRDS, &C., 

 CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 



THE natural uses of plants are for the support of animals, and hence 

 every plant, whether in a wild state or in cultivation, is more or less 

 liable to their attacks. The most universal enemies to plants in 

 British gardens are insects, snails, slugs, and earth-worms ; but they 

 are also subject to be devoured or injured by reptiles, birds, and some 

 quadrupeds. Tn consequence of the introduction of new species and 

 varieties of plants, the refinements of garden cultivation in forcing- 

 houses, and the cultivation of tropical plants in stoves, the attacks of 

 ordinary insects have been more severely felt, and several new species 

 have been introduced. Hence, to prevent the increase of insects and 

 other garden vermin, or to destroy them after they have commenced 

 their attacks, has become an important element in garden-culture. 



Till about the end of the last century very little attention was paid 

 to garden vermin by horticultural writers. Birds were considered to 

 be the chief enemies of gardeners, and they were directed to be scared 

 away or shot at, on account of the injury they did to the rising seeds, 

 or the ripe fruit which they aite or destroyed. The injuries done by 

 insects of whatever kind then passed under the general term of blight. 

 The scientific study of insects had made little or no progress in this 

 country ; and it does not appear to have been then known that birds, 

 though injurious to gardens to a limited extent, are yet on the whole, 

 by living in great part on insects, slugs, worms, &c., the gardener's 

 best friends. Neither does the use of certain reptiles, such as the frog 

 and toad, and even of quadrupeds, such as the weasel, appear to have 

 been understood in gardens by the gardeners of the past generation. 

 In the present day, however, this branch of garden management, like 

 every other, has been subjected to scientific inquiry, and the object 

 of this chapter is to generalize the results ; leaving details relative to 

 particular species of garden vermin till we come to treat of the plants 

 by which they are chiefly affected. The order which we shall follow 

 will be that of worms, slugs, snails, insects, reptiles, birds, and 

 quadrupeds. 



The Earth- Worm, considered with reference to Horticulture. 



The common earth-worm (lumbricus terrestris L.) has a long cylin- 

 drical contractile body, without eyes, teiitacula, or any external appen- 

 dages ; the head being only distinguishable from the posterior ex- 

 tremities by being more narrow and pointed. The mouth is a small 

 orifice at one extremity, formed by two lips, of which the upper one 

 is the larger and more projecting. The alimentary canal extends from 

 the mouth to the opposite extremity, where it ends in the vent. The 



