AqUABIUH. 



Tlie following year a great stir was made about a new weed 

 which was fast choking up that river, and, upon inspection, the 

 professor was much surprised to find it his old acquaintance 

 which he had the year before parted with so unceremoniously. 

 Another account says, that it was brought over adhering to 

 logs of Canadian timber ; and still another account, that, in 

 whatever way it was imported, it must have been very many 

 years ago, as the " oldest inhabitant " of Croydon has known 

 it in the canal there since his youth. Whichever account is 

 correct, there is the plant, and very pretty it looks with its 

 brilliant green leaves. " Most of our water-plants," writes 

 Mr. Hogg, " require, in order to their increase, to be rooted in 

 the bottom or sides of the river in which they are found ; but 

 this flourishes altogether independent of that condition, and 

 actually grows as it travels slowly down the stream after being 

 detached." It is no less prolific in the aquarium than in its 

 native stream, and must be constantly pruned. 



Plants of the lily kind 

 are always pretty objects 

 in the aquarium. There 

 are the yellow and white 

 water-lilies, with their 

 handsome leaves floating 

 on the surface with suf- 

 cient buoyancy to serve 

 as rests for the smaller 

 sorts of amphibia. 



The Hydvochavis mor- 

 sus ranoB, or Frogbit, is 

 a useful and interesting 

 plant, of the lily kind in 

 appearance, but belong- 

 ing to the same order as 

 the vaUisneria, and, like 

 that plant, the circula- 

 tion may be detected in 

 the leafstalks. It has a 

 pretty appearance in the aquarium, where it will thrive well and 

 bloom freely. The body of the plant, resting on the surface of 

 the water, derives its nourishment fi:om the roots at the bottom 

 of the vessel, by means of its long spiral stalks, which descend 

 to it, and, hke the female flower of the VaUisneria, its foliage 

 can accommodate itself to the surface of the water. This 



774 



SMALL WATBB-LILT. 



