AQUATIC PLANTS USEFUL 'J-Q THE MICROSCOPIST. 45 



CHAPTER II. 



COMMON AQUATIC PLANTS USEFUL TO THE MICROS- 

 COPIST. 



Ranunculus. — Nymphsea. — Myriophyllum. — Utricularia. — Cerato- 

 phyllum. — Lemna. — Anacharis. — Vallisneria. — Sphagnum. — Ric- 

 cia. 



There are several common plants floating freely in 

 the water, or more or less firmly rooted in the mud at 

 the bottom of shallow ponds and of slowly flowing 

 Streams, that are important to the student of micro- 

 scopic aquatic life. This may be either through their 

 own interesting or peculiar structure, or on account of 

 the minute plants and animals living among their tan- 

 gled leaves or attached to the stem and other parts, 

 these entangled objects being, therefore, more easily 

 and surely captured by transferring the larger visible 

 growths to a small vessel of water than in any other 

 way. Most of these aquatic plants have their leaves 

 divided into fine, thread-like leaflets. They have 

 "dissected leaves," as the botanist names them, and 

 these filamentous leaflets become favorite resorts for 

 invisible animals which attach themselves to the nar- 

 row divisions, and feed on the free-swimming kinds 

 that likewise find the same places attractive. So, if 

 the student desires to gather microscopic material, let 

 him find any of the following plants and he will be 

 pretty sure to get what he wants. 



