200 



Marvels of the Universe 



THE AGA\E IN FLOX^'ER. 



The flower-shoot of the Agave grows to a height of thirty feet. "with 

 side branches bearing clusters of flowers, as seen, in this photo- 



But the juice, if evaporated, makes a 

 good substitute for soap, and the fibres of 

 both leaves and roots are valuable for 

 various purposes. The old ^lexicans made 

 paper from these fibres much as the ancient 

 Egyptians did from the Papyrus stems. 



The agave is a x'erj- common plant in 

 Tropical America, and is found in the 

 mountains e\'en at a height of ten thousand 

 feet above sea-level. 



THE FAIRY SHRIMP 



Some of the nnost beautiful forms of life are 

 to be found in the most unlikely, even the 

 most unlovely, of places. One has only to 

 refer to the illustrations of pond-hfe a few- 

 pages later for confirmation of this state- 

 ment ; but here we have further evidence in 

 the portraits of two young Fairy Shrimps. 

 The marx"els of pond-life are mostty found 

 in water that is far from being drinkable, 

 but the inost likeh' places in which to find 

 the exquisite and delicate Fairy Shrimp 

 are the deep ruts near woods that were 

 made by the Inroad wheels of timbei" wains 

 and that have filled with rain-water. In 

 such a restricted world, liable to be dried 

 up by the sun, without the presence of 

 water-weeds to purifj' the water, and to 

 all appearance nothing in the way of food, 

 the Fairy Shrimp lives and grows and 

 enjoys its life. 



The nearest relations of the Fairy 

 Shrimp live in absolute brine in the salt- 

 pans- where sea-water is evaporated to 

 obtain impure salt, so that it becomes even 

 more surprising to find the Fairy Shrimp 

 itself in such isolated and restricted quarters 

 as woodland ruts afford. 



The Fair\' Shrimp is all but transparent, 

 and the principal parts of its internal 

 organization are visible from without. Like 

 all the crab, lobster and shrimp family, to 

 which it belongs, its bod}' is built up of 

 a number of rings, and each ring has its 

 pair of appendages. Eleven pairs of these 

 are swimming legs 



which are also breathing 



