WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 



95 



placed at a considerable depth in the soil, and in clusters ; they are produced 

 at every season of the year, but chiefly in spring ; and 

 those laid at this season are hatched in June and July. 

 The eggs, when of full size, are as large as a pea, elliptical, 

 with a tubular aperture at one end, through which, the 

 young escape, there being more than one worm produced 

 by each egg. In fig. 4, a is an egg before the embryo is 

 visible : h the same egg with the embryo coiled up : and c 



Fig. 4. Eggs of the com- , ' • ?u ^ • xt^i, 



mon earth-worm in ^'^^ embryo worni m the act 01 escapmg. vv hen worms 

 different stages. are newly hatched from the egg, they are about an inch in 

 length ; but when they are produced alive, their length is not more than 

 four lines, and they do not attain the size of those that are born from the 

 egg for four months. Young worms do not gain their full size till after a 

 year. 



292. The popular belief, that if the earth-worm is cut info a number of 

 pieces, every portion will in time become a perfect individual, is only 

 true to a limited extent. The worm has the power of reproducing any part 

 of the body cut off behind the belt ; but if it is cut through in the middle 

 of the belt, or between the belt and the mouth, the worm is killed. If the 

 body is divided into two halves, the anterior containing the belt will repro- 

 duce a new tail ; but from the posterior portion a perfect worm is never 

 evolved, although it continues to live for a month or two, and grows in 

 some degree. If the division is made into three parts, the middle and hinder 

 ones die after some weeks' struggle for existence and some efforts at repara- 

 tion. The mouth and lips are perfectly reproduced, provided the cerebral 

 ganglions have not been included in the section. The natural history of the 

 worm is extremely interesting, and will be found in detail in an article in 

 the Gardeners Magazine for 1841, from which this section is abridged. 



293. The natural uses of the worm appear to be to serve as nourish- 

 ment to moles, hedgehogs, frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, birds, fishes, and 

 some kinds of insects. It is also said by naturalists that worms are useful to 

 plants by penetrating the soil, loosening it, rendering it permeable to air and 

 water, and even adding to the depth of the soil by bringing up their worm- 

 casts to the surface. Soil is not loosened by boring through it, but rather 

 rendered firmer in the parts not bored through ; and so far from surface 

 soil being rendered permeable by water in consequence of the bores of worms, 

 it is rendered less so, the worm-casts deposited on the orifices of the bores 

 always being water-tight ; so much so, indeed, that when lawns where worms 

 abound are to be watered by lime-water in order to destroy them, the first 

 step is to brush away the worm-casts with a long flexible rod, or remove 

 them by a rake, in order to let water enter the bores ; it having been found 

 from experience, that, when this operation is neglected, the lime-water sinks 

 into the soil without producing much eff'ect. With impervious loamy sub- 

 soils, resting on gravel, the case is otherwise ; and under such circumstances 

 worms may be useful, by permitting the escape of water where it would 

 otherwise be retained. The surface orifices of some burrows may also be 

 left open, or perhaps partially closed ; but this is not the case, as far as we 

 are aware, except during those periods in the night, or in dull moist 

 weather, when the worms have partially left their holes. With respect to 

 worms adding to the depth of the soil (an opinion first promulgated, we 



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