I'HKSIDEXT S ADDRESS. XVll 



Of course tlio confervoid alga' grow iiiucli too fast in 

 sniniuer. and it is sometiuaes necessary to take some out care- 

 fully, disturbing the general arrangement as little as possible. 



May I append to this an expression of my hearty desire 

 that instead of the hap-hazard way in which suitable ponds for 

 the preservation and growth of microscopic life are allowed to 

 exist, efforts should be made to get those worthy of con- 

 sideration protected, and influence nsed to establish new ones 

 in places where they would cost nothing more than a trifling 

 first outlay, and would prove centres of attraction to the 

 microscopist. botanist, and others. How often have I heard it 

 regretted that those famous preserves in Sutton Park known to 

 many as " Webb's Stews," should have been so ruthlessly and 

 needlessly destroyed, and yet these things could probably be 

 replaced in the same grounds at a very trifling cost compared 

 with the pleasure they would yield. 



Even to those who do not pay any special attention to 

 microscopic life I can strongly commend a garden pond, 

 provided that art is used only as far as necessary for furnishing 

 a perfectly water-tight basin, and that the rest is made as 

 natural and wild as may be, for, besides the plants, the 

 creatures of large size, as frogs, toads, water-tortoises, newts, 

 snails, and insects afford so much interest to every lover of 

 nature that the garden pond becomes a never-failing source 

 of pleasure. 



Having, I am afraid, somewhat wearied you upon the 

 details of collecting and keeping or growing microscopic life, I 

 will limit, as far as possible, my remarks upon the next point 

 I have in view, namely, the methods of examination, or rather 

 display ; and in using the word "display" allow me to make all 

 needful apology for adopting a term which would seem to place 

 this study upon so unscientific a basis. So many of us are, 

 however, engaged in the serious business of life, that opportu- 

 nities for real research are few, but. though the examination of 



