OR, THE HOME-CULTURE OF FRESII-AYATER PLANTS, 
the great Water-beetle row himself swiftly past with 
his fin-like legs far below the surface—now darting 
through a clear open space, and now disappearing 
in the deeper shadows, or gliding away among the 
undulating stems of the water weeds. I saw the 
strange form of the same creature in its larva state, 
hut did not know it then; indeed what could lead 
me to guess that it was the infant shape of the same 
insect ? 
As I lay there in the early summer sun, 
gathering the pink-tinged ears of the Soft-grass—of 
which I afterwards learned that the botanical name 
was Holcus lanata —the woolly Holcus, from the 
white and downy surface of its blade-like foliage— 
I turned again and again from my grassy bouquet 
to my world of mystery, deep in the water; con¬ 
tinually catching glimpses of some moving thing 
that increased my curiosity to the highest pitch. 
There was a certain exciting charm to a young 
lad, already an expert angler, in detecting the form 
of a great Jack lying suspended in midwater, en¬ 
joying his warm noon siesta; or in seeing a noble 
Perch glide majestically past, urged forward by a dig¬ 
nified wave of his graceful tail—and with his great 
dorsal fin nobly erect, bristling with a defiant fringe 
of spears, which even the voracious Pike generally 
