FRESHWATER WEEDS. 179 



There are many deep muddy ponds about Hawkkurst, 



but there is one very small one famed for its clearness. 



Searching for mosses one day, I repaired to this pond. 



Having noticed the fronds of the Greater Water-moss wav- 

 es o 



ing in its limpid waters I secured my prize, little 

 suspecting that a far rarer treasure was growing by its 

 side. Peering once more into the depth before rising 

 from my knees, I espied what I believed to be a fine 

 filmy moss, and I plunged my arm in again to secure it. 

 I grasped cautiously and felt the stems snap, but the 

 branches slipped through my fingers as if they had been 

 live fish, and only one frond was coiled round my fingers 

 when I drew my hand from the water ; but that frond 

 was of such excessive beauty, that I was overjoyed by 

 its acquisition. It resembled a string, or rather a series 

 of strings of the most delicate beads, branching in a 

 pinnate form ; the thick part of the stem was composed 

 of beads as large as rape-seed and olive in colour, but 

 the tips of the branches were delicately fine, and their 

 beads purple. I soon perceived that many of the fronds 

 that I had detached were floating about in the pond — 

 some of these I caught on the end of my umbrella but I 

 could not hold them, they were so slippery. After 

 struggling for some time to circumvent the plant, I 

 allowed it to circumvent me, and left it victor of the 

 field, or rather of the pond ; but returned with a sea-side 

 tin on the morrow, and secured abundance of my pretty 

 Alga. This was the common Batrachaspermum (B. 

 vagum.) If I admired its beauty when seen with the 

 naked eve, I did so much more when examining: it with 



