ach FRIEND: WHITE WORMS AS PLANT PESTS. ai 
supplied by the quotation from Johnston’s Catalogue, remarks that 
it has not been customary heretofore to suspect the white worms of 
damaging plants, but thinks the evidence he has adduced is quite 
sufficient for establishing a charge of guilty. He reminds us that 
though Vejdovsky published a large and invaluable Monograph 
dealing entirely with the Enchytrzeidz, that author does not appear 
_ to have had any suspicion of the pestiferous character of the genus 
‘Enchytreus, or of any of the species. Similarly in the splendid 
Monograph of the Oligocheta which Mr. Beddard has recently 
produced, we have not a single sentence throwing light upon the 
subject. In all eleven genera are grouped under this family name, 
and some sixty species are described—a number which has during 
the past two years been considerably augmented by the researches of 
American, Continental, and British investigators—yet nothing is said 
of the parasitic character of any of them. ae 
I have during recent years given considerable attention to this 
amily, which will be considerably enlarged when all our British 
species have been investigated and described, and I am now able, 
not only to make general allusion to the parasitic nature of several 
of the species, but particularly to adduce a concrete illustration. 
In general I may say that a large number of species belonging to the 
genera Fridericia, Marionia, Enchytreus, and Henlea especially, are 
always most readily found either in and around the roots of grasses; 
flowers, and plants, or among vegetable debris and farmyard manure 
They flourish amazingly in stable muck, and are therefore almost 
invariably abundant in frames and where plants are being forced. It 
may happen, however, in such cases as a rule, that the worms are SO 
well supplied with nutritious and congenial food that they do not 
need to adopt a parasitic mode of life, and so the plants may 
flourish despite the presence of creatures which under adverse 
conditions would prove destructive pests. 
It has fallen to my lot, however, during the past month of July 
to investigate a case in which the parasitic character of the white 
worm is so striking and patent, that, in the interests of floriculture, 
I feel it my duty to state the facts. On July 26th I was asked to 
inspect some beds of China Aster a few miles from Bini 
and give an opinion on the cause of their sickly appearance. ea 
grower prided himself on the beauty and perfection to which he. a 
brought his flowers in former years, and was greatly distr a 
find them this year an utter failure. When specimens ° 
affected plants were lifted by the roots I instantly detected a nu 
of very minute worms busily working their way under the epiderm 
jd, but 
I naturally concluded that they were the well-known Not 
