SLUGS AND SNAILS. 



491 



FIG. 1085.- Black Slug. 



SLUGS AND SNAILS. 



My garden, like all others, abounds in slugs and snails, which 

 delight to eat the choicest and rarest plants, and therefore it is the duty 

 of the gardener to exterminate them in those spots where only labour 

 and watchfulness secure to us 

 the pleasure of rearing beau- 

 tiful and foreign plants. 



We have the L imax agrcstis, 

 or Milky Slug. Fig. 1085, No. I, 

 represents the Arion atcr. or 

 Black Slug, No. 2 the same 

 whilst moving, and No. 3 when 

 in repose. These creatures 

 multiply by eggs (No. 4), and 

 have greatly increased in number since I first took possession of my 

 garden. They come out at night and in wet weather, when they should 

 be caught by the gardener. The horns of slugs and snails appear 

 to be highly sensitive, which has been well alluded to by our great 

 poet when he says that 



" Love's feeling is more soft and sensible 

 Than are the tender horns of cockled snails." 



SHAKSPEARE, Love's Labour's Lost, 



We have also abundance of the Helix aspersa^ or common Garden 

 Snail, of which the thrushes 

 are so fond. The species is 

 propagated by eggs (fig. 1 086, 

 No. i), which hatch into small 

 snails (No. 2), grow (No. 3), 

 and finally attain the size of 

 No. 4. They are fond of living 

 in the crevices of walls, but 

 as we have no walls we are 

 not greatly troubled with them. 



On the chalk downs to the south of my garden, the large Helix 



FIG. 1086. Common Garden Snail. 



