•with refo-ence to Horticulture. 213 



animal's habits. When more than half-extended from its hole, 

 and intent only on self-enjoyment, we nevertheless cannot ad- 

 vance within several feet of the worm before it feels the approach 

 of harm, and hurriedly retreats within its burrow. No one is so 

 unobservant as not to have noticed this watchfulness, and I 

 have been sometimes puzzled to explain how the animal was made 

 aware of my approach, although it is usually accounted for by 

 saying that it had felt the slight trepidation of the ground oc- 

 casioned by my tread. The worm is equally sensible to every 

 influence of the season and of the atmosphere : it feels them all. 

 Hence in winter it burrows deeper and deeper, to a depth 

 of 3 or 4 feet, ; as the cold increases, to get beneath the 

 freezing soil ; and it reascends with the thaw, so that in the 

 calm of temperate evenings it is ready to venture out to the 

 surface, which worms do very frequently. In spring the earth- 

 worm is seen in hundreds at the surface, every where throwing 

 out its coiled casts, drillino- the walks of our gardens and the 

 interstices of tiie pavements, and trailing its serpentine body 

 from hole to hole with rapid eagerness and energy. This season 

 is most genial, most in harmony with the tone of its nerves ; but, 

 when again the summer heat I'eigns oppressive, the worm seeks 

 the shade and moisture necessary to its existence, by hiding in 

 the earth as it did in winter; and, as the parchedness of the 

 ground increases, it digs down to a moist soil or perishes from 

 siccation. After a long drought, worms seem to me to anticipate 

 a coming change, for 1 have observed them close to the surface 

 even before the first fall of rain, prepared, as it were, to meet the 

 shower now so welcome to them. But long rains are very 

 hurtful to them ; and great numbers are, in such a season, forced 

 from their burrows, and drowned in the little pools which fill every 

 pit and hollow of the garden grounds. 



It is to be hoped for the worm's sake that its taste is less acute 

 than its touch ; for, destitute of tongue, proboscis, teeth, jaws, 

 or even a suctorial mouth, it is doomed to feed upon the soil in 

 which it burrows, swallowing the earth mixed with all its de- 

 caying organised remains, from which its nutriment is extracted. 

 Worms are very fond of drawing into their holes blades of grass, 

 straws, fallen leaves, and such like objects ; but this is scarcely 

 for the purpose of food, though shreds of them hav^e been found 

 in the stomach, where are also sometimes found small stones or 

 gravel. The mouth is a small orifice in the first segment, placed 

 in an emargination 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 stomach is composed of two pouches, of which the 

 first is membranous, and may be compared to a crop, while the 

 second is muscular, and is analogous to a gizzard. 



p 4 



