POND LIFE 



719 



to ten spikelets grouped closely together, 

 and surrounded with broad, brown, leafy 

 bracts stiffened at the tip into points 

 extending in some cases considerably 

 beyond the spike. The spikelets are 

 without stalks, and contain one to four 

 perfect flowers, the other glumes being 

 empty ; the perianth of the tribe 

 Scha:niis, or Bog Rush, has either the 

 constrvrction reduced to a few bristles 

 or it is absent altogether. There is a 



noticeable character in the way the 

 sedge-like sheathing base of the leaf 

 abruptly alters into the more rush-hke 

 contracted form, with a tendency to 

 flatten and twist upon itself. In all these 

 bog plants there is careful supply of the 

 waterproofing construction at the base, 

 where special membranous bract-forms 

 meet the emergency of habitual contact 

 with water. 



Maud U. Clarke. 



Photograph by T. Meyer, Strcatham, S.lf^. 



POND LIFE— III 



By F. MARTIN DUNCAN, F.R.P.S. 



"With PhotoSraphs by the Author 



IF we pay a visit to a pond covered 

 with Duckweed, and carefulh' collect 

 some so as not to injure the slender, 

 submerged stems and roots, and on our 

 return home place our treasure in a glass 

 tank filled with water, we shall probably 

 be rewarded by finding that we have also 

 obtained some specimens of one of the 

 most interesting inhabitants of the pond. 

 On looking carefully at the miniature 

 forest of Duckweed stems, as they hang 

 downwards in the tank, we shall see that 

 some of the stems have attached to them 

 what looks like a tiny greenish lump 

 After watching the lump for a few 

 minutes, we shall see it begin to elongate, 

 and a circle of slender arms or tentacles 

 will appear round the top, something like 

 a little crown of waving snakes. This 

 quaint little animal — for an animal it is, 

 and not an excrescent growth on the side 

 of the stem — is called the Fresh- water 



Hydra, and has gained its popular name 

 from the crown of waving arms. 



The Fresh-water Hydra is a relation of 

 those exquisite Garland Polypes, the 

 Compound H}'drozoa, which inhabit the 

 rock pools on the seashore. Its life- 

 history is not quite so remarkable as that 

 of its marine relations, as it never becomes 

 a true colony, nor does it produce tiny 

 Jelly-fish babies, but, nevertheless, it is 

 a very interesting and curious little 

 creature. For instance, it does not remain 

 attached to one spot throughout its life, 

 but is very fond of shifting its quarters 

 from one place to another : and to watch 

 it travelling down the submerged stem of 

 a water-weed, or along the glass sides of 

 the tank, is to witness a very remarkable 

 gymnastic performance. When the Hydra 

 wishes to change its quarters, the tiny 

 creature elongates its body and arms, and 

 bending over sideways until its body 



