Journal of Applied Microscopy. 241 



NEWS AND NOTES. 



Concerning Fresh Water Aquaria. — Mr. Wood's note, in the November 

 number of the Journal, on the cuhivation of algae in aquaria, prompts the publi- 

 cation of a device we have used for several years past with very gratifying suc- 

 cess and with a minimum of care. It is simply to cover the battery jars or other 

 aquaria with loose covers ; circular glass plates are excellent, which will exclude 

 the dust, but permit free access of air. In such aquaria it very rarely happens 

 that bacterial zoogloea form on the surface, a trouble almost certain to occur if 

 the aquaria are open. 



By this simple means we have kept aquaria for as long as four years, without 

 further care than to replace now and then the water lost by evaporation. 



Among other algae that thrive and fruit under this treatment are Chara, Nitella, 

 some species of Spirogyra, Oedogonium, Coleochaeta, and Vacheria, though the 

 last is rather fickle in its behavior. 



Besides these, unicellular forms are always abundant, both plants and ani- 

 mals, and it is worthy of note that we have found amoeba in great abundance in 

 an aquarium that had been unchanged, save by the occasional addition of tap 

 water, for nearly three years. 



Before adopting this method with my aquaria, the collecting of fresh material 

 for class work always consumed a good deal of time, as in open aquaria the 

 plants would usually decay in a week or so ; but since I learned the virtue of the 

 covered aquarium, the keeping on hand of an abundance of fresh water algae 

 has been the lightest of tasks. 



C. V. Piper. 



Agricultural College, Pullman, Wash. 



The University of Montana has been working under many difficulties since it 

 started some four years ago. It was obliged to begin work in one of the public 

 school buildings of the city of Missoula, and the work of the university has grown 

 beyond the capacity of the building. However, two buildings are now about 

 completed, and will be occupied before the first of March. For the work in 

 Biology, tables have been planned for this particular work. They are twenty- 

 eight inches high, twenty-eight inches wide, and four feet long. The tops are of 

 oak, inch and a half thick, stained black and paraffined. On either side of the 

 student, when he sits at the table, are two drawers and a space below for larger 

 pieces of material. The tables thus will afford opportunity for work with two 

 sets of students by working them at different days of the week, and give each 

 student two drawers and one space below. The department of Biology has been 

 organized but two years, and at first the class was small, consisting of but six. 

 At the present time there is a very hopeful outlook for this line of work, and the 

 department is as crowded with students as those that are older. In this short 

 time some very good work has been done, and when the new quarters are occu- 

 pied there will no doubt be much more interest than can be aroused in small 

 rooms without opportunity for any but the more elementary lines of work. 



M. J. E. 



