STUDIES IN GARDEN ANNELIDS. 343 



medium), which seems never to have been found elsewhere. It 

 is the creature described in the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' of 

 November, 1909. The same applies to the variety (tepidaria) 

 described in March, 1904, though several other forms have 

 been found elsewhere. In addition to the Square-tailed Worm 

 (Allurus), I also found another which is a denizen of soft mud. 

 It had never been found in Oxford before (Helodrilus oculatus), 

 though I have recorded it for the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, 

 and have found it of recent years in many parts of Great Britain. 

 It is very useful where the soil is stiff, and can thrive in situa- 

 tions which all other worms eschew. 



The foregoing is a pretty complete list of the Lumbricidce so 

 far as the Oxford Gardens go. Others would no doubt be added 

 if I could be regularly supplied with specimens, or could per- 

 sonally visit the grounds at other seasons of the year. But now 

 we come to other forms. It almost always happens that Botanic 

 Gardens contain a variety of foreign or doubtful species, and in 

 this respect Oxford is no exception. In the warm house where 

 the Nymphseas are grown the Eastern worm, usually known as 

 Perichceta indica, is not uncommon ; in spite of the fact that 

 Mr. Baker had recently had the old earth removed and the beds 

 remade. Had the material so removed been examined by an 

 expert, it would doubtless have yielded many valuable and in- 

 teresting species, which it will now be for ever impossible to 

 record. Along with Perichceta I found specimens of a very 

 attenuated Annelid which has never been under observation 

 before. Unfortunately, the specimens succumbed to the cold 

 before I could examine them, and for the present the species and 

 genus must remain undecided. It was not an indigenous worm, 

 and seemed to me new to science. Its value lay in the ease with 

 which it could force its way through the stiff loam. 



All the foregoing are terrestrial. In the water and mud a 

 number of aquatic Annelids are to be found. The Tubiftcidce 

 are slender, red-blooded creatures, which, by the movements of 

 their tails, keep the water oxygenated, while they pass the mud 

 through their intestines and pour it out in streams. Here I 

 found Branchiura busy at work. It is an interesting discovery, 

 having been first taken many years ago in the Victoria regia 

 tank in Regent's Park, and described in 1892 by Beddard. Since 



