POLYPES. 
49 
CHAPTER V. 
Polypjfeka {Polypes). 
Continued. 
0 
Ip 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 
°n 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 
ttade, examine slowly and carefully the bottom thus 
revealed. On the mud he will probably see a good many 
iound knobs of jelly, from the size of a turnip-seed to that 
°f 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 
i) 
