THE PAGE OF NATURE. 153 



digiosa. In the spring of the year 1825, the waters of the 

 Lake of Morat presented an appearance in many places 

 of being coloured with blood, and popular attention was 

 speedily directed to this strange occurrence. M. de 

 Candolle, however, proved that the phenomenon in ques- 

 tion was caused by the development of myriads of the 

 purple conferva (Oscillatoria nibescens). The pheno- 

 menon occurred every spring for several years, when the 

 fishermen of the neighbourhood, more poetical than this 

 class of persons usually are, remarked that " the lake 

 was in flower." M. Montagne records a similar pheno- 

 menon in the Comptes Rendus. He happened to be 

 at the Chateau du Parquet in July 1852, when the tem- 

 perature had been exceedingly high for about ten succes- 

 sive days. This continued warmth of the atmosphere, was 

 probably instrumental in providing the conditions suit- 

 able for the development of a red parasite, which attacked 

 all kinds of alimentary substances, and particularly 

 pastry, imparting to them a bright red colour, resem- 

 bling arterial blood. " The servants," he observes, " much 

 astonished at what they saw, brought us half a fowl 

 roasted the previous evening, which was literally covered 

 with a gelatinous layer of a very intense carmine-red, and 

 only of a bright rose colour where the layer was thinner. 

 A cut melon also presented some traces of it. Some 

 cooked cauliflower which liad been thrown away, and 

 which I did not see, also, according to the people of the 

 house, presented the same appearance. Lastly, three 

 days afterwards, the leg of a fowl was also attacked by 

 the same production." From a microscopic examina- 

 tion, M. Montagne concluded it to be the same thing 



