Perchloride of mercury applied to his lawn destroyed thousands of earthworms, but ruined the grass.
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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Perchloride of mercury applied to his lawn destroyed thousands of earthworms, but ruined the grass.
"The number of worms in your garden is astonishing … it will be an interesting observation, how soon the land is again stocked with worms, & whether the grass grows better before this happens. – I neglected to observe whether worms distruct [disturb?] the roots of grasses. – You will probably be able to borrow … my book On the Formation of Vegetable Mould … in which … you will find a good deal about the natural history of worms."