THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1894. 



141 



WHY THE LATE GERMAN EM- 

 PEROR, WILLIAM I,, LOVED 

 THE CORNFLOWER. 



We read so often about tlie royal, 

 even the imperial flower of Prussia, and 

 in every instance we find that the cause, 

 why just this common field flower is 

 so celebrated by the Germans, is not 

 known, or at any rate no mention is 

 made of it. Here is how it all happened : 



In the year 1807, when Queen Louise 

 of Prussia, with her children, had left 

 Berlin, which was then in the posses- 

 sion of Napoleon I., to accept an asylum 

 that a country gentleman m the vicinity 

 of Danzig had offered her, a broken 

 axle of her wagon caused a delay of a 

 couple of hours. While the wagon was 

 being dragged empty to the next village 

 for repairs, the Queen sat on a log await- 

 ing its return. The two princes, Fritz 

 and Wilhelm, soon got tired of sitting 

 'round, they went to gather wild flow- 

 ers by the roadside and in the near by 

 fields. They brought them by thearm- 

 fuls to their mother. The greater part 

 of these flowers were the blue corn- 

 flower {Centaurea cyanus coelestina) so 

 frequently seen in the wheat and rye 

 fields of Germany. Of these the Queen 

 made little wreaths to amuse her chil- 

 dren. When the first one was finished she 

 put it on the head of the younger, Wil- 

 helm, who then had a beautiful head of 

 blonde hair. The effect was so charm- 

 ing and pleased her so much that she 

 smilingly embraced and kissed him — 

 and for the first time since Prussia's 

 great misfortune, the young princes saw 

 their mother happy once more. 



Blue cornflowers, wherever seen after 

 this, naturally reminded Wilhelm, the 

 revenger of his family and liberator of 

 Germany, always of his beloved mother 

 who departed this life three years after 

 the above occurrence, to live forever in 

 the memory of her grateful people. 



MAX VON DEM BORNE. 



Max V. d. Borne was one of the most 

 successful fishculturists of Eurojie. 

 Especially in the acclimatization of 

 American fishes he had marked suc- 

 cess. Besides the favored carp-like 

 fishes of Germany, he bred the Cali- 

 fornia Rainbow Trout, the small and 

 large-mouthed Blackbass, the Rock- 

 bass, Strawberry-bass, Sunfish and 

 Catfish. The breeders for ail these he 

 imported himself from this country. 



He was born on his father's estate, 

 Berneuchen, Prussia, sixty-eight years 

 ago. After graduating from college 

 he selected mining for his profession. 

 He traveled considerably and worked 

 practically for some time, after which 

 he studied for three years at the Uni- 

 versities of Berlin and Bonn. He 

 filled several important positions in the 

 Department of Mining in Prussia, but 

 finally resigned to look after the large 

 estate of his father, the soil of which 

 being excellently adapted for the manu- 

 facture of fancy building bricks, for 

 which Berlin was a good market, he 

 turned his attention towards this in- 

 dustry and erected a large establish- 

 ment. The pits out of which the clay 

 had been dug he formed into fish-ponds, 

 utilizing the water of a small river 

 that runs through his estate. At our 

 visit to his establishment, three years 

 ago, he had twenty-five ponds and three 

 lakes under cultivation, and owned a 

 fish-hatchery of which any State of 

 the Union would be proud of. Space 

 does not admit to give a detailed de- 

 scription of his establishment, which 

 has a world's reputation. At the Ber- 

 lin International Fishery Exposition, 

 1880, he received the third "Emper- 

 or's prize," and at the London Fishery 

 Exposition, 1893, he was the Imperial 

 German Commissioner. Emperor Fred- 



