DISEASES OF PLANTS. 919 
_ connexion with this plant, to know that it often 
causes the death of gold-fish. Being capable 
of growing under water, it attacks the poor 
fish, spreads itself over its body, covering it 
with a whitish slime, and sometimes in less 
than the course of a day destroys the fish even 
if it had been apparently quite healthy pre- 
viously. Should the fish be seen thus covered, 
the reader will know the nature of its disease, 
by which it is, as it were, caught in a vegetable 
net; but we are sorry to have to add that we are 
not acquainted with any remedy that can be 
successfully adopted to get rid of the disease. 
The plants next in point of age to these are 
perhaps those called Annuals. These are sown 
in the Spring, presently spring up, grow luxu- 
riantly for a few months, and as Winter comes, 
wither and die. The great Sunflower, which 
reaches such a height and vigour of growth, 
and turns up its golden features to the sky for 
many a long Summer day, perishes as the night- 
frosts come on, its leaves and stems turn brown, 
and the next breeze humbles it to the earth. 
After these come the Biennials; in these the 
flower-stem is not developed, nor the flower, 
