92 



THE FAMILY AQUARIUM. 



kind for selection, as the timber is certain to decompose 

 and contaminate the water in your tank. 



The Chondrus crisjpus is another strikingly appropriate 

 as well as handsome plant for the Aquarium. When 

 dried, this weed constitutes the carrageen moss of trade, 

 and is made up into jellies as an article of medical value. 

 It may be found sometimes in open pools, and sometimes hid- 

 den away under piled up rocks, where, entirely enveloped by 

 a thick and tangled mass of the rank olive-weed (Fucus)^ it 

 grows in little leafy bushes, each leaf widening to a flat- 

 tened tip. In its native element this plant is a perfect 

 aggregation of brilliant hues, some of its leaves gleaming 

 with nacreous tints, as though made of mother-of-pearl, 

 and some shining like tempered steel, in blue, violet, and 

 glistening semi-crimson. 



The Ckrysemenia rosea^ with its pink fronds, is a unique 

 specimen. It is hard to say what it resembles, but it is 

 not inelegant. 



The Corallina, in its earlier stage, may be seen, like a 

 shelly or stony cast, incrusting with a dull purple hue, like 

 that of some of the mosses, the rocky surface of low-lying 

 pools. It is exhibited in irregular patches, continually in- 

 creasing from the circumference in concentric zones. By 

 and by, it shoots up into little bushes of many-jointed 

 twigs, which jut out on every side, or gather in bunches, 

 and hang lovingly over the verge of the precipitous 

 rocks. It is chiefly composed of lime, and is of a stony 

 liardness ; yet it is a vegetable beyond dispute, and in a 



