The British species of Lumbricus have never been carefully
monographed; but we may judge of their probable number from those
inhabiting neighbouring countries. In Scandinavia there are eight
species, according to Eisen; {7} but two of these rarely burrow in
the ground, and one inhabits very wet places or even lives under
the water. We are here concerned only with the kinds which bring
up earth to the surface in the form of castings. Hoffmeister says
that the species in Germany are not well known, but gives the same
number as Eisen, together with some strongly marked varieties. {8}
Earth-worms abound in England in many different stations. Their
castings may be seen in extraordinary numbers on commons and chalk-
downs, so as almost to cover the whole surface, where the soil is
poor and the grass short and thin. But they are almost or quite as
numerous in some of the London parks, where the grass grows well
and the soil appears rich. Even on the same field worms are much
more frequent in some places than in others, without any visible
difference in the nature of the soil. They abound in paved court-
yards close to houses; and an instance will be given in which they
had burrowed through the floor of a very damp cellar. I have seen
worms in black peat in a boggy field; but they are extremely rare,
or quite absent in the drier, brown, fibrous peat, which is so much
valued by gardeners.
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