3662 The Zoologist — September, 1873. 



from the ocean into your parlour; much less can you select a 

 peculiar colour : Nature will plant all the sea-weeds she requires, 

 and will brook no advice or assistance from man. I have often 

 smiled at the instructions given under this head, and have 

 veondered whether the authors have discovered and avowed their 

 error. Let us hear Mr. Gosse, who has been followed in a like 

 strain by every dabbler in aquarian literature. I quote from ' The 

 Aquarium,' p. 21. 



" The first point to be attended to is the procuring of living sea-weeds, the 

 vegetable element in the combination which is displayed in the Aquarium. 

 And this must be the first thing, whether we are stocking a permanent 

 tank, or merely collecting specimens for temporary examination, as we 

 cannot preserve the animals in health for a single day except by the help of 

 plants to re-oxygenate the exhausted water. By their means, however, 

 nothing is easier than to have an Aquarium on almost as small a scale as 

 we please ; and every visitor to the sea-side, though there for ever so brief 

 a stay, may enjoy, with the least possible trouble, the amenities of zoological 

 study in a soup-plate, or even in a tumbler. * ^i; * t. Suppose the 

 time to be the first or second day after full or new moon, when the tide 

 recedes to its greatest extent, laying bare large tracts of surface that are 

 ordinarily covered by the sea. This is the most suitable time for procuring 

 sea weeds, for these must be taken in a growing state; and hence the 

 specimens that are washed on shore, and which serve very well for laying 

 out on paper, are utterly useless for our purpose. With a large, covered, 

 collectiug-basket, a couple of wide-mouthed stone jars, a similar one of glass, 

 two or three smaller phials, a couple of strong hammers, and the same 

 number of what are technically termed cold chisels, tipped with steel, 

 I proceed with an attendant to some one of the ledges of black rock that 

 project like long slender tongues into the sea. An unpractised foot would 

 find the walking precaiious and dangerous, for the rocks are rough and 

 sharp, and the dense matting of black bladder-weed with which they are 

 covered conceals many abrupt and deep clefts beneath its slimy drapery. 

 These fissures, however, a^e valuable to us. We lift up the hanging mass 

 of olive weed from the edge, and find the sides of the clefts often fringed 

 with the most delicate and lovely forms of sea-weed ; such, for example, as 

 the winged Delesseria, which grows in thin, much-cut leaves of the richest 

 crimson hue, and the feathery Ptilota of a duller red. Beneath the shadow 

 of the coarser weeds delights also to grow the Chondrus in the form of 

 little leafy bushes, each leaf widening to a flattened top. When viewed 

 growing in its native element this plant is particularly beautiful, for its 

 numerous leaves glow with refulgent reflections of azure resembling the 

 colour of tempered steel. '^- * * =:= High wading boots are necessary 



