74 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[April 1, 13GG. 



these plants with British soil and home affections 

 that caused the thrill of delight. But, if not so 

 much in these, yet in many others, there are beauties 

 which linger about the tender petals, and which 

 communicate sensations of pleasure to those who 

 gaze upon them. Whence comes the love for flowers 

 if not from the pleasure of looking at them and in- 

 haling their odours ? The poor city weaver, with 

 his primrose in a broken teapot, cherishes it as he 

 would a sickly child, and loves it because it babbles 

 to him of green fields, and because of its own green 

 leaves, and modest flowers, and sweet odours. 

 There may be some who find a joy in gazing on 

 birds, or butterflies, or beetles, but far more 

 universal than all is the love for flowers. The little 

 blue forget-me-not, the scarlet pimpernel, the yellow 

 buttercup, the fairy-like harebell, the silver stitch- 

 wort, the golden tormentil, the fragrant wood- 

 ruff, the purple loosestrife, the virgin lily,—" They 

 toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in 

 all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." 

 Whether the wanderer passes through woodland or 

 over moor, scrambles along the mountain side, or 

 saunters by the brook in the valley, at every step he 

 will encounter some floral apostle, that even when 

 brushed aside or trodden upon, will whisper to his 

 listless ear, — "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." 



There is another world of beauty as yet but half 

 revealed. It is a paradise to which man has but 

 lately possessed the key, and into which thousands 

 have never yet glanced an eye. If the visible world 

 has such beauties which enchant the unaided eye 

 and entrance the senses, how much more is there 

 which had never entered into the mind of man to 

 conceive, in that invisible region to which the eye 

 alone could never penetrate, but which the micro- 

 scope has revealed. The thousand forms of delicate 

 tracery on the frustules of Diatoms, the elegant 

 variety of garniture in Desmids, the mysteries and 

 marvels of insect structure, — feet, antennae, scales: 

 everywhere, everything— even a drop of stagnant 

 water, re-echo the truism which trembles in every 

 leaf, and nestles in every flower, that " a thing of 

 beauty is a joy for ever." 



H we would derive from such sources all the 

 wealth of pleasure which they are capable of yield- 

 ing, we must be content to relinquish our own in- 

 dividuality, to forget all that relates to " self," and 

 become absorbed into Nature as part of her, to 

 pursue the investigation of her riches without a 

 feeling of cupidity, to catch her spirit, to inquire of 

 her concerning the hidden mysteries of life, not out 

 of mere curiosity, but as a means of understanding 

 her better, and then we shall find ourselves meekly 

 and submissively receiving the lessons which she has 

 to impart, gathering her riches, and bending in 

 homage beneath the hand of Him 



That sets a sun amidst the firmament, 



Or moulds a dewdrop, and lights up its gem. 



AQUARIUM HISTORY. 



rpHE early editions of Mr. N. B. Ward's book on 

 -*- the growth of (terrestrial) plants in closely- 

 glazed cases, contain a supplement treating on 

 aquarium matters ; and it is there stated that in a 

 work on the Microscope and Microscopic Objects, 

 written and published in German by Martin 

 Frobenius Ledermuller, a hundred years ago, there 

 is a representation of an aquarium with plants and 

 animals in it, and with the vegetation shown in the 

 act of developing visible bubbles of oxygen under 

 the stimulus of light, the animals being thereby 

 maintained in a state of health. I am obliged to 

 quote from memory, as I cannot procure an early 

 edition of Mr. Ward's book, and later editions do 

 not contain the supplement in question ; but I 

 believe I am substantially correct in thus reproducing 

 the statement. However, there is nothing of the 

 kind named or hinted at in Ledermuller's work, a 

 copy of which, in three volumes, quarto, dated 

 1760-61-62, is now before me. 



The representation alluded to is no doubt the 

 one contained in plate 87, vol. ii., and described at 

 length in pages 170 to 174 of the same volume. 

 The vase-shaped glass vessel is shown about three 

 inches high, being about one-third of its real size ; 

 it is half full of clear w T ater, with some plants 

 of Equisetum (Water Horse-tail) ; some Lemna 

 (Duck-weed) ; and some fresh -water Polyzoa — most 

 likely Alcrjonella stagnorum, — with their tentacles 

 expanded. The whole thing looks marvellously 

 like a small aquarium of our day, and it is made to 

 seem still more so from the plate being coloured ; 

 but the text does not give one word, nor yet any- 

 thing which may be construed into the most remote 

 implication that LedermiUler knew anything about 

 making the plants do the service of maintaining the 

 water in a respirable state for the animals. Indeed, 

 it is distinctly stated that the plants were in- 

 troduced for the sake of the animals found upon 

 them. And on looking at the plate with care, it 

 may be observed that certain small, round, and 

 other shaped bodies are not air-bubbles, but minute 

 plants and animals, which a hand above the vase is 

 dipping out by means of a glass tube immersed in 

 the water. The same volume contains plate 67 

 (described at pages 129 to 132), and this plate con- 

 tains a coloured picture of a cylindrical glass jar, 

 nearly full of water containing some Duck-weed 

 {Lemna) and some living Hydras (Hydra viridis 

 most probably) ; but neither in the plate nor in the 

 text can anything be discovered leading to the sup- 

 position that the plants were put into the jar for 

 any other purpose than because the Hydras were 

 attached to them. If it had been known that the 

 water could have been preserved clear and un- 

 changed by the chemical action of the vegetation, 



