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THE AQUARIUM: 
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posture, with head inclined upwards 
and the under surface of the body to- 
wards the food, the creature waved the 
broad expanse of fins, creating an up- 
ward current or wave in the water 
which lifted the food from its position 
and carried it right into the fish’s 
mouth.” 
*k * * 
In one of the old Transactions of the 
Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh 
is a communication from a Mr. Good- 
sir, giving a description and a drawing 
of a vegetable parasite found on the 
gills of a gold-fish, with a minute ac- 
count of its form, structure, and mode 
of fructification. Later on, in 1842, a 
Dr. Bennett gave an account also of 
the same to the same society. He 
said: ‘* To the eye they present the ap- 
pearance of flocculent matter attached 
to the gill. Under the microscope two 
distinct structures were noticed, one 
cellular, the other non-cellular, the 
former consisting of long tubes, some 
filled with granular matter, some empty, 
the contents having escaped through 
rupture. This vegetable growth sprang 
from a fine granular amorphous mass.” 
Professor Muller, of Berlin, in a paper 
read before the Academy of that city in 
1841, alluded to similar parasites evi- 
dently. He said : ‘‘ Possessing a life 
which is peculiar, but having no power 
of movement.” He calls them organic 
beings like plants, with a structure 
perfectly distinct from the celludes of 
animal tissue. 
* *k * 
The following is from a paper on the 
habits of fish, author’s name not given : 
‘‘ Fish are of nearly the same speci- 
fic gravity as water, and so have little 
tendency to rise, but swim up or down 
with equal facility. Nature, however, 
supphes them with a sufficient supply 
of some substance lighter than water 
by which any tendency to sink at all 
ordinary depths might be counter- 
acted. This is provided against by an 
amount of fat or oil with which they 
are furnished, and which being in about 
the same proportion to the solid parts 
to bring them to about the same specific 
gravity as water, supersedes in them 
the necessity of making any efforts ex- 
cept for the purpose of changing their 
situation. The air bladder modifies 
their buoyancy, whilst among the 
cetacea the oil as blubber serves as a 
substitute. This air bladder, moreover, 
is wanting among the cartilaginous 
fish, and many of those that lie in mud. 
Its principal use seems to be to increase 
or diminish their weight and te modify 
their specific gravity.” 
H. B. SMALL. 

OUTLOOK OF THE WATER 
LILY: 
There is at present as never before, 
in every pursuit in life an awakening 
battle-cry against luxury, together 
with a growing tendency, whether for 
manual labor or material, to inaugu- 
rate real merit and quality at the ex- 
pense of the unqualified and spurious. 
And nowhere is this truth receiving 
more substantial recognition than in 
the various branches of agriculture. 
