THE GOLDFISH AND ITS CULTURE. 51 
THE SPRING OR WILLOW MOSS. 
(Fontinalis antiperytica.) 
This little plant is an evergreen native. It may be found 
in shaded brooks growing attached to stones or other objects 
in the water, or near springs. The small leaves are borne alter- 
nately on very thin and much branched wify stems. The 
plant is very dark green in color, especially when at rest in 
winter ; the young sprouts are of a cheerful bright green when 
they first appear in early spring, forming a refreshing contrast. 
The plant is a good water purifier, and the ancients believed 
that it killed the fever-germs in the water ; hence its scientific 
name. 
If possible, this plant should be obtained with the object on 
which it grows, and so introduced into the collection ; when in- 
troduced as cuttings, these should be planted against the rock- 
work, to which they will soon cling, covering the same like an 
ivy does a stone wall. 
THE FLOATING ARROWHEAD. 
(Sagitiaria natans. ) 
This tropical specieyoriginated in my greenhouse in the 
Spring of 1879, when two minute sprigs sprung up accidentally 
in a little soil attached to the root -stock of a water lily sent 
to me from South America. From these two plants, which I 
carefully nursed and propagated, came all the stock now grow- 
ing in aquariums in every part of the civilized world. It is 
evergreen. During the winter the narrow blades, one-fourth of 
an inch wide and six to eighteen inches long, that form its leaves, 
grow below the surface of the water, forming a brilliant green 
thicket ; as spring approaches, the characteristic lance - shaped 
