OR, THE HOME-CULTURE OF FRESH- WATER PLANTS. 



the great "Water-beetle row himself swiftly past with 

 his fin-like legs far below the surface now darting 

 through a clear open space, and now disappearing 

 in the deeper shadows, or gliding away among the 

 undulating stems of the water weeds. I saw the 

 strange form of the same creature in its larva state, 

 but did not know it then ; indeed what could lead 

 me to guess that it was the infant shape of the same 

 insect ? 



As I lay there in the early summer sun, 

 gathering the pink-tinged ears of the Soft-grass of 

 which I afterwards learned that the botanical name 

 was Holcus lanata the woolly Holcus, from the 

 white and downy surface of its blade-like foliage 

 I turned again and again from my grassy bouquet 

 to my world of mystery, deep in the water; con- 

 tinually catching glimpses of some moving thing 

 that increased my curiosity to the highest pitch. 

 There was a certain exciting charm to a young 

 lad, already an expert angler, in detecting the form 

 of a great Jack lying suspended in midwater, en- 

 joying his warm noon siesta ; or in seeing a noble 

 Perch glide majestically past, urged forward by a dig- 

 nified wave of his graceful tail and with his great 

 dorsal fin nobly erect, bristling with a defiant fringe 

 of spears, which even the voracious Pike generally 



