IW 



THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1894. 



The T^quhriutv^. 



A Quarterly Magazine. 



50 cts. a Tear. Single Copies, 15 cts. Each. 

 Sample Copies Free. 



Advertising Rates on Application. 



HUGO MULERTT, Publisher, 

 173 Nostrand Av., Brooklyn, N. Y. 



under the not inappropriate name of 

 Water Hyacinth, is a very beautiful 

 plant. On the Amazon it covers acres 

 with its showy flowers. While the plant 

 is fioatino^, the petioles are curiously 

 swollen, hut this regularity disapjiears 

 when the plant becomes rooted. Once 

 we found a white flowered variety, and 

 several times we have seen plants with 

 pink flowers. Unfortunately these oc- 

 casions were always when we were far 

 from home on some long excursion, and 

 the plants were lost before we could get 



The Water Orchid— (Eichornia azurea.) 



them where they could be jjroperly cared 

 for. The other species, Eicliornia 

 azurea, also a very pretty plant, is not 

 Amazonian. 



Some of the Utricularias have very 

 bright yellow flowers, and we have seen 

 reaches of marsh a mass of color. The 

 Water Lettuce, Pistia stratioides, is a 

 very common plant. It is handsome 



and interesting. It propagates so rap- 

 idly that a single plant will soon cover 

 a very large area. The flowers are white, 

 sessile and small, in a little spathe at the 

 base of the leaves, each spathe con- 

 taining one male and one female flower. 

 This plant is the favorite food of the 

 "2) ixe-hais," the Manitee or sea cow 

 Avhich lives upon the long roots. This 

 animal is not uncommon on the Middle 

 and Upper Amazon and is much sought, 

 for its flesh makes an excellent dinner ; 

 it is white with streaks of green fat, 

 very tender and tastes like chicken. 

 Boiled in the oil it forms " mixira," 

 which, when fresh, is a very nice pro- 

 vision for a long voyage, but Heaven 

 help the man who has to live on old 

 "mixira," hard as iron and of a ran- 

 cidity which has no comparison, as we 

 once had to do. 



tSah'iiiia brasilensis, a very pretty 

 little plant, often seen in aquariums, is 

 very common. There is a species of 

 Pontederia which closely resembles the 

 common United States species, which 

 in some places forms large masses ; it is 

 very common round Para. The flower 

 is in appearance just like the North 

 American plant, only not quite as hand- 

 some. There are doubtless many un- 

 discovered aquatics on the Amazon. 

 We have described a few of the most 

 common. During our voyaging we did 

 not give this class of plants especial at- 

 tention, and at our house we had no 

 facilities for their culture. They are 

 difficult to transport, for, if found in 

 the lakes it is no easy matter to keep 

 them alive during a liomeward tramp, 

 which may last for days, and even in a 

 canoe voyage they suffer much. In a 

 future paper we may describe some of 

 the smaller species which are worth 

 growing. — Edward S. Rand, Brazil, 

 in The Mayfloiver. 



