A GARDEN DIARY 193 



is pleasant to remember that it was through the 

 energy and perseverance of a woman naturalist, 

 Fraulein Marie von Chauvin, that the matter was 

 finally cleared up. By continually damping the 

 specimens of axolotl kept by her on land, and 

 assiduously feeding them, she was able to pre- 

 serve two out of five through the gradual process 

 of decreasing their gill-tufts, and tail-fins, changing 

 their skins, and so forth. Finally to her own and 

 everyone's triumph, the complete amplystoma form 

 was assumed, and the transformation was thereby 

 accomplished. The world has seen a fair number 

 of miracles since it began to run its course, and 

 perhaps not the least difficult of those miracles to 

 receive with absolute credulity have been some of 

 its natural ones ! 



o 



