8 
BEANS. 
are exceedingly liable to foes before they show themselves above the 
surface. A sample of these enemies is forwarded. [These proved to 
be specimens of the Flattened Snake Millepede, Polydesrmis complanatus, 
figured above at 6 and 7, nat. size and magnified, Ed.] They are not 
Wireworm, but work in the same way when the seed is germinating, 
and in the cleft between the two lobes of the Bean you will find them 
active. The plant, if not killed, comes up blind, and a gappy crop 
succeeds. 
“ The field where these were taken from is a marshy soil, and 
might have been grass some years ago : here one finds such creatures 
in great abundance.” 
[On the 20th of May more Beans and their pest were sent, some of 
which I found to be the Earth Julus Worm or Snake Millepede, Julus 
terrestris figured above at 4, magnified, Ed.] 
On the 24th of September Mr. Glenny further mentioned :—“ The 
Snake Millepedes did their work undisturbed, and a thin crop of 
Scarlet Runners was the result. It would have been impossible to 
stop them after writing to you, as the mischief was already accom¬ 
plished.” 
Mr. Glenny suggests that it might be of service to mix carbolic 
acid (sufficiently diluted) with the seed before sowing, in the same way 
as Wheat is now dressed to keep away small birds. This would make 
the Bean unpalatable and less attractive to underground foes; and 
further, relatively to the suggestions I had offered, formed from study 
of the habits of the pest, it is observed :—“ Your suggestions to move 
the ground frequently before planting, to eradicate all rubbish and 
garbage, to sow not too early, are what I can endorse entirely. By 
planting before the usual time the seed is longer in germinating on 
account of the lowness of the temperature; thus more time is allotted 
to the insects to destroy or feed upon the grain.” 
Mr. R. Cooke notes that at the Croft, Detling, near Maidstone, the 
Broad Beans, and to a less degree Scarlet Runners, were very much 
thinned between sowing and germination. They proved, when 
examined, to be full of centipedes, as many as sixteen in one Bean. 
The question is asked, “ Did the Beans die first, and the centipedes 
only eat the rotten seed, or did the centipede kill the Bean by eating 
it when still good ?” I think the latter, as some Beans germinated 
and came through the ground with almost white seed-leaves. 
Mr. J. Addison, writing from Mapledurwell, Basingstoke, mentions, 
with regard to measures of prevention :—“I forget if I told you that 
last season my mangels were much injured by the False Wire- 
worm. I got rid of many of them by placing cotton cake just under 
the soil, and I found also (when too late) that salt easily killed the 
millepedes. 
