40 



THE AQUAEIUM, APRIL, 1896. 



The T^qukriutvy 



A Quarterly Magazine. 



$1.00 a Tear. Single Copies, 25 cts. Eacti. 



Advertising Kates on Application. 



HUGO MULERTT, F. I. R. S.A., 



Editor and Publisher, 



173 Nostrand Av., Brooklyn, N. Y. 



is supplied, by the tail. This append- 

 age, having served the tadpole as a 

 propeller, was a storehouse at the same 

 time, and it is now completely ab- 

 sorbed. 



At this period of development the 

 tadpole becomes greenish in color and 

 stays near the surface of the water to 

 breathe ; finally it seeks the shore, as 

 shown in Fig. 9, and lives on land, its 

 breathing apparatus being no more 

 suitable for aquatic life. After the 

 little frog is fully developed (Fig. 10), 

 it has also the coloring and markings 

 characteristic to the species. It is now 

 able to live in or outside of the water, 

 but prefers the damp borders of ponds 

 or springs, where it finds most of its 

 food, and seeks the water only as shelter 

 against the weather or some of its 

 many enemies. 



Our experience shows that ninety- 

 eight per cent, of the eggs deposited 

 by a frog, hatch ; of these larvse about 

 fifty per cent, are consumed by various 

 animals as food ; the rest will develop 

 into tadpoles ; the greater part of these 

 serve as food for other classes of ani- 

 mals, and less than five per cent, of the 

 original number will ever become per- 

 fect frogs. This apparently small per- 

 centage shows the enormous product- 

 iveness of the frog, and were it not for 

 its many enemies who prey upon the 

 adult frog, this useful animal would 

 soon become a plague to man. 



THE ORIGIN OF SAGITTARIA 



NAT AN S. 



During the winter of 1878-79, while in 

 business in Cincinnati, Ohio, we ordered 

 from a correspondent, then traveling 

 in the Amazon river region, an assorted 

 lot of wild aquatic plants. In due time 

 we received a little box full of various 

 roots and rhizoms, some big, others 

 small, and planted them in various 

 tanks in our greenhouse. It is one of 

 our peculiarities to throw nothing away 

 as useless until it has had a fair trial. 

 In this case we placed the moss that 

 had been used as packing and also the 

 trimmings of the roots in a tank of 

 water, and the mud that had dropped 

 from the roots we j^laced in another ves- 

 sel, thinking that some stray seeds might 

 possibly be among this refuse that might 

 develop into something useful. In due 

 time Ave discovered several little sprigs 

 of vegetable growth in the vessel that 

 held the refuse. These were carefully 

 removed to a separate tank where they 

 would be under better control. Among 

 these sprigs thus removed were two 

 grass-like blades, not quite as wide as a 

 straw ; their starting jooints were two 

 little corms, each not larger than an 

 apple seed. To all appearances these 

 were Vallisneria spiralis, and we ex- 

 pressed our surprise regarding the wide 

 distribution of this famous water plant, 

 which we were in the habit to obtain 

 from the Northern lakes. 



It was about the middle of March, 

 these two little plants had completed 

 their third leaf, when a lady, a faithful 

 customer of ours, called at our store 

 for a small vallisneria for her aquarium. 

 The two above mentioned plants being 

 the only ones we had in foliage at the 

 time (our native vallisneria starts much 

 later), we sold her the biggest of them 

 for ten cents, making apologies at the 



