THE CONQUEST OF THE DRY LAND 195 
squirts out from mouth-papille tiny jets of 
slime, and it is believed to do this also as a 
means of catching small insects. Peripatus is 
of great interest to naturalists, because in some 
important respects it resembles a worm, while, 
in others, especially in the possession of breath- 
ing tubes, it has risen to a higher level, and 
shows relationship with insects. Itmust be very 
well adapted to its mode of life, for it is very 
widespread in warm countries, being found, 
Fic. 20.—A CENTIPEDE. 
with slight differences between the species, in 
Central America, the West Indies, in Chili, in 
New Zealand and Australia, in Asia, in Cen- 
tral Africa, and at the Cape of Good Hope. 
The second great invasion led on to centi- 
pedes, millipedes, insects, and spiders, and 
just as the worm-invasion resulted in the 
making of fertile soil, so the second invasion 
had for its great consequence the establishing 
of a linkage between flowering plants and the 
