Scott, as he did not know
how long worms could survive beneath water. They cause much
trouble in the Botanic garden, "for some of the finest of our lawns
can be kept in anything like order only by being almost daily
rolled; if left undisturbed for a few days they become studded with
large castings." These closely resemble those described as
abounding near Nice; and they are probably the work of a species of
Perichaeta. They stand up like towers, with an open passage in the
centre.
A figure of one of these castings from a photograph is here given
(Fig. 3). The largest received by me was 3.5 inches in height and
1.35 inch in diameter; another was only 0.75 inch in diameter and
2.75 in height. In the following year, Mr. Scott measured several
of the largest; one was 6 inches in height and nearly 1.5 in
diameter: two others were 5 inches in height and respectively 2
and rather more than 2.5 inches in diameter. The average weight of
the 22 castings sent to me was 35 grammes (1.25 oz.); and one of
them weighed 44.8 grammes (or 2 oz.). All these castings were
thrown up either in one night or in two. Where the ground in
Bengal is dry, as under large trees, castings of a different kind
are found in vast numbers: these consist of little oval or conical
bodies, from about the 1/20 to rather above 1/10 of an inch in
length.
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