THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 



55 



united by love, he hovers about the 

 barrier that lies between them, darting 

 over the crystal water in the raptures 

 of his new life. 



Let us scoop up a handful of the 

 water from the pond and carefully ex- 

 amine it. Our naturalist will tell us 

 that there is in it a creature with 

 neither arms nor legs, properly so 

 called, but which catches animals more 

 lively than itself and twice its own 

 size, with no eyes, yet loving the sun- 



These tentacles, or feelers, float in the 

 water like fairy fishing lines. Little 

 creatures invisible to our unaided 

 sight, that have been frisking around 

 full of life and activity, are seized by 

 them, and, one tentacle after another 

 being wound round its prey, the 

 process of digestion takes place. When 

 we laugh at the idea of two or three 

 hydras growing out of one, if severed, 

 we are told the reason is that the prin- 

 ciple of life is diffused equally in all 



Rheum Collinianum. 



shine, whose stomach can be turned 

 inside out, apparently, without hurting 

 it, and which, if cut in two, will not 

 die, but each part grow into a perfect 

 creature. To inexperienced eyes it 

 looks like a tiny piece of green sewing 

 silk about a quarter of an inch long 

 and a little untwisted at one end ; this, 

 however, is really a set . of delicate 

 limbs placed round the thicker end of 

 the slender body of the little Hydra 

 (for snch is the name it goes by). 



its parts ; that any part can live with- 

 out the rest, and, like the cutting of a 

 plant having life in itself, it can grow 

 into a jierfect creature. 



Journeying onward, he tells of 

 another animalcule provided with two 

 hairy wheels upon its head, whirling 

 continually around, producing a strong 

 current towards its mouth, placed be- 

 tween them, carrying in all lesser ob- 

 jects floating near, and, like the rotary 

 wheels of a steamboat, carrying him 



