Tli£ FLOSAL \VORLD AND GARDEN GDIDE. 301 



THE HYDRA. 



A GARDEX STUDY FOR THE MICROSCOPE. 



ET W. E. PRITCHARD. 



[HEN Alphonse Karr -wrote his charming " Tour Round 

 my Garden," he appears to have had no experience with 

 the microscope. I find no fault with him on that 

 account, for his work ia full enough of wonders real and 

 imaginary. But what a -world of marvellous life, with- 

 out beginning and without end, is a garden to one -who seeks occa- 

 sional recreation with the microscope. We see an advertisement in 

 the papers headed, " No Home Complete without a Stereoscope." 

 I would say, in capital letters, " No Home Complete without a 

 MiCEOSCOPE," and those who love the garden should have most 

 frequent occasion for resort to this revealer of the secrets of 

 Nature. It is many years since I read a paper by Mr. Hibberd on 

 the "Microscopic Structure of the Valisneria spiralis," and that 

 made a microscopist of me, and since that day all my spare time has 

 •been given to the instrument ; and it seems to me that there can be 

 DO higher pleasure. It is in part a discharge of my indebtedness to 

 Mr. Hibberd that I now offer him for his readers, if worthy, a few 

 notes on the Hydra, which everybody has heard of, and very few 

 have seen. But if you take a little duckweed from the nearest 

 pond, you will be sure to obtain hydras in plenty, and then you may 

 begin with a low power to investigate their structure, and never 

 more, so long as you live, should time find for you a weary hour. 



The classic history of the Hydra is full of awfulness. The real 

 Hydra is full of beauty. I must avoid the poetical view of the case, 

 being insuflBcieutly posted in Greek myths, but every person of 

 culture knows enough of the fiction, and only one here and there 

 knows anything of the fact. Take out of the water a tuft of duck- 

 weed, and put it in a glass of quite clear water, and allow it to 

 remain undisturbed in full daylight for a few hours. Then explore 

 the plants and the side of the vessel with the aid of a good hand- 

 lens, and you will no doubt see a number of green star-like 

 creatures — a sort of compromise between a spider and sea anemone 

 — suspended beneath the weed or attached to the glass itself. As 

 they stretch out in some instances until they are the sixth of an 

 inch long, and are as stout as sewing silk, the eye needs no special 

 training to discover them. If you have studied the history of 

 zooph3te8, and especially the actinia section, you will at a glance 

 discern the relationships of the pretty creatures before you. In a 

 paper by Dr. Deakin on the subject, he says : — Upon examination 

 it will be seen that its body is formed like a little bag, open at one 

 end ; this is its mouth, and is surrounded with seven very delicate 

 thread-like arms (ieniacula), and that the other extremity is furnished 

 with a minute disk-like sucker, by which it is enabled to attach 

 itself to the roots of the plants, etc. Examine it carefully, and I 



October. 



