44 SIR PETER EADE ON “ MY CITY GARDEN. 
Worms (again, witli the aid of Sir John Lubbock) which inhabit 
my grass-plot ) or those of the Snails ] or of the Slugs, which 
exist in equally innumerable quantities in the garden soil. Both 
these latter classes of animals appear to be made to be eaten, as 
they largely furnish food for the birds. r i hey prefer damp or wet 
weather, and to some degree are excellent weather-glasses or weather 
prophets. As we all know, they roam or sail about on rainy 
evenings. But it is curious to observe also the special instinct by 
which in dry periods the Snails will become aware of watered or 
damp earth at a considerable distance, and how they will in the 
night cross a large breadth of dry, or even dusty earth, to reach 
a spot of ground where plants had been watered on the previous 
evening. I need scarcely remind you that these land mollusks, 
the Snails, and still more the Slugs, are creatures with super- 
excellent appetites for the garden plants. 
I have now, in conclusion, not only to apologise to this Society 
for the length of my paper, but, perhaps, also for having brought it 
before you at all. 
I did not venture to do so until I had asked our excellent 
and experienced Secretary whether he considered that a few such 
popular or surface notes, even if containing little that is new, would 
be acceptable, or even appropriate, to such a learned body. My 
real object has been less to state what I have personally observed 
than to show what a large field still exists in our City centres 
(as indeed everywhere) for a naturalistic use of whatever out-door 
opportunities are present ; and to illustrate the principle that even 
in the smallest and least promising city gardens or spaces, the 
materials for interest and self-instruction are ever present, and 
practically inexhaustible ; that here, as elsewhere, and everywhere, 
we may “ read, and read again, and still find something new ; 
something to please, and something to instruct.” 
