vni LETTERS TO MARCO 49 



and press the earth down with it anywhere 

 you will be almost certain to see a wonder- 

 fully bright and clean worm issue forth a little 

 distance off, endeavouring with the utmost 

 speed to make his escape. 



The worms now are all extremely busy 

 collecting little heaps of the wych-elm blos- 

 soms, which fall in quantities all over the 

 paths and lawn. This fresh green food must 

 be very acceptable to them after their long 

 fast, and you see little piles of it collected 

 by the worms in every direction. 



On warm nights in September I have 

 seen, in the shrubbery paths of my neigh- 

 bour's garden, luminous worms crawling 

 rather quickly in little serpentine lines on the 

 ground. They are quite bright, with a phos- 

 phorescent glow, about two inches or a little 

 less in length, and luminous throughout their 

 whole body. When I examined one I found 

 it to be a sort of " hundred legs " or myriapod, 

 much like those sometimes found inside apri- 

 cots. It was exceedingly fragile ; in picking 



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