THE AQUARIUM, JANUARY. 1894. 



89 



THE TUMBLER. 



Species Kin-teo7i- Yu. 



This is a remarkable fish, and one 

 that seems quite distinct. The head 

 and tail are bent upward, giving to the 

 entire fish the form of a crescent. 



When swimming it has the habit of 

 throwing itself over and over in the 

 same manner that tumbler pigeons do 

 when flying. The color of the fish is a 

 magnificent blue flushed with orange, 

 making a gorgeous disjjlay. 



THE ELEGANT. 



This is a variety of the species Ouen- 

 Yu, or "lettered kind," so named 

 because the streaky markings are not 

 altogether unlike Chinese characters. 



It is of a pure white, sparingly dashed 

 with patches of pearly pink on the body, 

 and having some exquisite letter- like 

 markings or tracings about the head and 

 tail. Another variety of the sj)ecies is 

 rich scarlet, shading off to black on the 

 back, in the midst of which is a large 

 cross of pure white having two trans- 

 verse bands like the Cross of Lorraine, 

 by which name the author thinks proper 

 to designate it. 



( To he continued. ) 



Philadelphia, Pa., October 15, 189o. 

 To the Editor of The Aquakium. 



Let me give an account of a minute floating 

 water-plant that has come under my ken. It 

 is so small as to need a magnifying glass for 

 its study, being probably not so large as a 

 Portulacca seed, and is globular in shape. 

 They are propagated by germination or bud- 

 ding. A slight elevation of the surface is seen, 

 that gets larger and larger, until in a few 

 days a new plant emerges from the mother 

 one ; that immediately begins to go itself 

 through the same process, and becomes in its 

 turn a progenitor. These plants do not seem 

 to have roots, being only small cellular spheres, 

 colored bright green with chlorophylle. I 

 will try to present a few drawings of them. 



0006' 



/ 



3. ^, 



oV @M 



No. 1 is a plant previous to gerniination or 

 budding. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are different stages 

 of that process. No. 5 represents a young 

 plant just freed from the parent one. No. 6 

 is an enface figure, showing the pit from 

 which the young one has escaped. No. 7 is 

 a profile figare of the same thing. These are 

 mere enlarged outline drawings, the whole 

 plant consisting of a collection of cells. 



W. Bringhurst, M. D., 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



THE LOBSTER. 



SOME NEW POINTS ABOUT THE LIFE OF 

 THIS TOOTHSOME CRUSTACEAN. 



Fred. Mather, Superintendent of the 

 New York State Hatchery at Cold 

 Spring Harbor, told the American Fish- 

 eries Society, at the World's Exposition 

 at Chicago, in June last, what is known 

 of the lobster. In his remarks he said: 



" Within a few years much has been 

 learned of the life history of our com- 

 mon lobster that we did not know be- 

 fore. We knew that the female carried 

 the eggs after extrusion, attached in 

 masses to the so called swimmerets un- 

 der the abdomen, which is improperly 

 called the "tail," atid that they hatched 

 there. In Bell's ' British Crustacea ' it 

 is said that the mother cares for the 

 young after hatching and can recall 

 them for protection. My own observa- 

 tions are that the young scatter and find 

 protection in the rocks. 



" I am satisfied that the lobster car- 

 ries her eggs all winter, and that all 



