CHAPTER V. 



Polypifera {Polypes), 

 Continued. 



If any of our wonder-loving readers will put a small phial 

 into his pocket, and stroll through some hedge-rowed lane 

 or quiet field at the sweetest season of the year, he may 

 find food for meditation in the results of his walk. Let 

 him direct his steps to the side of the first ditch or pool 

 in which the water is not fetid, where the surface is 

 already mantled over with the verdant duck-weed, and 

 where many aquatic plants, springing from the bottom, 

 wave their leaves in the limpid element. Stooping down 

 on the brink, let him lift with his fingers a little of the 

 coating of duck-weed, disturbing the water as slightly as 

 possible, and then, peeping through the opening he has 

 made, examine slowly and carefully the bottom thus 

 revealed. On the mud he will probably see a good many 

 round knobs of jelly, from the size of a turnip-seed to that 

 of a pea, of a transparent green hue, and others of the 

 same kind adhering to the stalks and under surfaces of 

 the leaves of the aquatic plants : — let him select a few of 



