416 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Narcotizing Agent for Pond Life and 

 Biological Work. 



Make a two per cent, solution in the 

 water they are living in. If it is not 

 desired to kill, the animals may be put 

 into some fresh water, after being 

 studied, and they recover and are not 

 harmed. This makes them easy to 

 keep still whilst taking their pictures 

 or projecting them on the screen in 

 their natural conditions or surround- 

 ings. 



Monobromate of camphor for nar- 

 cotization is good for diverse fresh- 

 water forms and is highly convenient. 

 Simply place a few crystals in the 

 water in which they are contained in 

 a watch glass. It is not applicable for 

 marine organisms as salt water hinders 

 its solubility. (Brocher). 



Everybody May Have Nitella. 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW. 



The hall was filled with people gaz- 

 ing into a hundred and fifty micro- 

 scopes. It was the annual microscop- 

 ical exhibition in Brooklyn. I had been 

 too busy in setting up and adjusting 

 my microscope, so busy I had had bare- 

 ly time to "How d'ye do" to one or 

 two neighbors that were equally busy 

 in screwing on objectives or adjusting 

 mirrors. 



At last the nucleus of a fine mounted 

 cell of Spirogyra was in perfect light 

 and focus. As I turned to look around 

 I saw a band of excited people crowd- 

 ing around one microscope. I has- 



NITELLA IN A SMALL AQUARIUM. 



tened over to see who had fainted. 



The first words heard on the out- 

 skirts of the crowd were, "Come here; 

 we must see this. They say it is a liv- 

 ing plant that shows how the life 

 moves." I surmised Nitella, and I en- 

 vied the microscopist his popularity. I 

 waited patiently till my turn came to 

 look. Only once before and long ago 

 had I ever seen that slow, grand, mys- 

 terious procession of the floating par- 

 ticles. How I envied the exhibitor; 

 everybody was exclaiming, "You must 

 see this." "They say it is only a live 

 plant, but it moves." "Isn't that won- 

 derful?" 



The only calm and serene person was 

 the exhibitor. He hardly took his eyes 

 from the beloved instrument for fear of 

 its getting knocked off the table by the 

 pushing crowd. His face had an air of 

 serenity as if to say, "Such popularity 

 is only commonplace with me." How 

 benignant and kindly he was as he un- 

 folded his arms and condescended to 

 smile as I heartily congratulated (but 

 inwardly envied him his popularity.) 

 He hesitated, started to say something, 

 then changed his mind as he reached 

 forward to caution an observer. The 

 better angel returned. He condescend- 

 ingly pulled me by the coat, and 

 hoarsely whispered, "I'll give you a tip 

 on this. Only one place in New York 

 where you can get Nitella. Old man 

 Breutsche, a typical fat German, up at 



■ 's bird store always keepsa little 



on hand, but," lowering his voiceand 

 suspiciously glancing around, "he is as 

 choice of it" as if it were gold dust ; aw- 

 fully hard to grow. He let me have 

 what is there— only a little bit." 



I dreamed of that German that night, 

 and in fancy saw him weighing out a 

 tiny bit in old-fashioned scales. 



That was three years ago. Nitella is 

 now in the laboratory in abundance. 

 The secret is to put a small amount in 

 a large aquarium in a shady place, 

 cover with glass, do not change the 

 water, do not put in fish nor any other 

 form of swimming life. Anyone may 

 have Nitella in abundance, but it took 

 a year and many failures to teach me 

 that a shady place and no disturbance 

 to the water are needed. It is very 

 fragile. Fish or newts break it up. In 

 much light, confervae and algae over- 

 run everything, and house cleaning de- 



