SLUGS AND SNAILS. 



491 



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 Limax agrestis, 

 or Milky Slug. Fig. 1085, No. 

 I, represents the Avion ater, 

 or Black Slug, No. 2 the same 

 whilst moving, and No. 3 when 

 in repose. These creatures 

 multiply by eggs (No. 4), and no. 1085.- Black siug. 



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, Lov^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. 1086, 

 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 r- j « -i 



Fig. 1086. — Common Garden bnaxl. 



greatly troubled with, them. 



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



