6o 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
acquainted with the management of an aqua¬ 
rium has learned the interesting fact that a few 
water-growing plants will preserve the same 
water in a vital condition for many months. 
This interesting discovery was but finding out 
one of the great secrets of Nature, which ex¬ 
plained one of the purposes of the rank veg¬ 
etable growths of all bodies of water. The 
teeming animal life and vast and rapid decay 
of aqueous plants soon rob the waters of all 
their vital stores of oxygen; and if thus left, 
death would brood over every foot of ocean and 
lake. But stand by the shore where submerged 
plants are growing, and as the sun arises and 
touches the surface with his beams, mark how 
the thick bubbles of oxygen sparkle amid the 
mass of vegetation, and in constant streams 
ascend and burst into the air. This process 
restores the life-giving element to water, and 
health floats on its white wings to the waiting 
inhabitants on its borders. With this marvel 
of divine goodness fresh before the mind, who 
will treat with loathing or neglect the humblest 
plant that mingles with its slimy sisterhood of 
algae ? 
We have taken but a mere glimpse of the 
