430 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



how they managed to accomplish it, asserting, with 

 the utmost gravity, that they put into their mouths 

 a piece of sponge soaked in oil, whereby they were 

 enabled to breathe under water ! Surely, such a piece 

 of information, as we might suppose, could only 

 emanate from some wag on April-fool-day ; and yet, 

 listen to the cautious Hooke, in his c Micrographia/ 

 a work published in 1665, at the expense of the Royal 

 Society, and bearing their glorious motto 



" Nullius in verba/' 

 " No argument like matter of fact is ;"- 



in strict conformity with which, he seems to have 

 entered upon his researches after truth : 



" That use which, the divers are said to make of it, 

 seems, if true, very strange ; but having made trial of 

 it myself by dipping a small piece of it in very good 

 sallet-oyle, and putting it in my mouth, and then 

 keeping my mouth and nose under water, I could not 

 find any such thing, for I was as soon out of breath 

 as if I had had no sponge, nor could I fetch my 

 breath without taking water in at my mouth." 



Surely the world was astonished at this notable 

 discovery ! 



Such was the condition of natural science at the 

 period when we find the editor of Gerarde's ' Herbal ' 

 taking his early morning's walk by the sea-side, and 

 stumbling upon a remarkable production, that forms 

 the subject of our present chapter, and which in that 

 antique repertory of curiosities the reader will find 

 described in the following words : 



" This is a very succulent and fungous plant, of the 



