08 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, November 11, 1856. 
period to the jealousy of the males, as all those onsets have 
ceased long ago, and they now seem quiet and sluggish. In 
the course of some weeks the tank got more crowded, and 
the young ones got larger. Some of them are now like min¬ 
nows, but a great number are still very small. I often have 
occasion to go into the tank bare-footed, when they will always 
assemble round, and nibble and pull the hairs on my legs, 
seemingly in w r ant of something to eat. The tank is sup¬ 
plied with water by a lead pipe coming from a cistern, which 
is kept full by a pump; the water is, consequently, free 
from any vegetable or animal existence before it reaches the 
tank, so that the whole shoal have to depend upon what 
they find in it for food. The change of water, which is 
effected by running off a quantity two or three times a week, 
and by waste in watering plants out of it, brings them no 
food; and, as they have no food given them at any time 
except by accident or for amusement, this cruel want is show¬ 
ing itself on them. The old ones, though seemingly healthy, 
do not grow, neither do the young ones; and the numbers 
of the latter are evidently decreasing. A few small ones 
which were removed to a larger tank, where they can find 
more food, have far outstripped the others in growth. 
The cause of the decrease in number among the small 
ones is, in a great measure, occasioned by cannibalism, for 
I have sometimes found one or two lyiug dead on the 
sui'face of the water, with their tails eaten off and otherwise 
mutilated; and I have seen the big ones feeding on them. In 
one instance I observed an old one attacking a rather large 
young one, vdiick was disabled and exhausted, and there 
could be no doubt of the pursuer’s intention. They eat the 
tender leaves of the Victoria, the Nymphseas, and the roots 
of the Papyrus and other plants; but what they like best are 
insects or worms. I frequently wash plants infested with 
mealy bug in the tank with the syringe, when they catch 
the bug as it falls on the water. They are also fond of 
ants; but their greatest treat is a handful of worms, which 
I sometimes gather for them in the soil of an old hotbed 
which was used for Celery. Two will sometimes catch the ends 
of the same worm, and pull and struggle which shall have it. 
I have never known them to attack each other in glasses, 
although they are, in general, far from being properly 
fed in such vessels. I know five which have been in 
the same glass for upwards of two years, and they have 
had no other food but a few crumbs of bread given them 
every time the water is changed, which is twice or thrice a 
week (the water comes from a pond in the fields). They 
seem healthy, but they have not grown all that time, wflich 
they ought to have done had they been properly fed. How 
fast do the fish grow, and how large do they get in those 
ponds about manufacturing towns which are partially sup¬ 
plied with warm water from an engine, and where they can 
gather food for themselves ! 
I would here suggest a very simple plan, which has struck 
me would answer well for keeping up a supply of natural food 
for them during the summer months, namely, to get a dead 
rabbit or fowl, and allow it to go to maggots in a box in the 
open air, as the game-keepers do to get food for their young 
pheasants, taking care to provide a succession a's gardeners do 
salading. Fresh meat cooked and chopped fine would answer 
best when maggots could not be had. I have kept a few little 
fishes, called, in the north of Scotland, “ Banstickle,” in a 
vase, and fed them in summer on the maggots which are 
always to be found in toadstools and mushrooms growing 
wild; but these are not always to be got in sufficient 
quantity in every locality. 
I shall be glad if “ Z. Z. Z.” can find a hint in what I 
have said enabling him to explain his own grievance, and 
how to prevent it for the future. I should be obliged if you 
would tell me whether Gold Fish are a distinct species, or 
merely a variety of a species. My reason for this inquiry 
is, that the fish here change colour at every stage of growth 
and at every age. They appear to come black at first from 
the ova; they then change, some of them when scarcely an 
inch long, some of them silvery, but most of them yellow. 
There are some in the large tank nearly as large as the old 
ones, which are still quite black; and I think it possible 
that some, of them may not change colour at all. I, indeed, 
know three which are, at least, from two to three years old, 
and are still quite black; but they are in glasses.— A Young 
Gardener, Dalkeith. 
[Gold and Silver Fish are distinct kinds, belonging to 
the same Natural Order as the Carp. The Gold Fish is 
Cypr'inus anratus. When young it is very dark coloured, and 
this changes to the golden-red hue earlier or later, accord¬ 
ing to the vigour of the animal. The young Silver Fish is 
never so dark coloured as the young Gold Fish. They are 
natives of China, and introduced here as far back as 1691. 
They have become naturalised in some of the streams in 
l’ortugal, and are imported thence annually to supply our 
vases.— Ed. C. G.] 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
EARLY FLOWERS FOR GEOMETRICAL BEDS. 
“ Could you inform me what to plant in a small geome¬ 
trical flower-plot that would flower in spring, so that I could 
plant the beds with half-hardy annuals, &c., in June? I 
have no glass accommodation, but a 1 five-pound greenhouse ’ 
heated by a brick stove.—A Young Beginner.” 
[You are too late now. The best things for you would be 
hardy annuals, to be sown early in September, and to be 
transplanted in February, but to have a quantity of Wall¬ 
flowers from a May sowing, to keep the beds green and well 
furnished from October till the annuals were to be planted 
in February; then to distribute the Wallflowers, keeping 
only enough “to centre’’ and “corner” the geometric beds 
with, filling the rest of the space with the annuals. Such as 
Silanes, Clarkias, Nemophilas, Limnanthes, Gilias, and Col- 
linsias would be the best kinds for you. All the chance you 
have now is to aspire, or conspire, with some friends to 
excel the Crystal Palace people with spring bulbs. Use 
Van Thols, Rax rubrorums , Royal Standards, and such kinds 
of early Tulips, and as many dwarf yellow kinds as you can 
lay your hands on in a honest way. The Scarlet Turban 
Ranunculus, put in now, will look very gay ; Hyacinths ditto, 
Pheasant's-aye Narcissus, and Polyanthus narcissus of sorts ; 
and, above all, plenty of edgings to all your spring beds of 
Crocuses and Scillas, or Squills; all sorts of border Poly¬ 
anthuses and Auriculas, the “flowers of our childhood;” 
a nice bed of Duronicum Austriacum; another of the yellow 
Alyssum ; one of the variegated ditto; lots and lots of 
Aubrietia purpurea, Arabis verna, Double Wood Anemone, and 
all other Anemones that you can pick up ; of Ranunculuses 
the same. R. amplexicaulis is the best March white flower 
we have; the double yellow one the best of all later in 
the spring ; but you must wait a while for it, as most likely 
it is not in the trade, or rather, now, for it is a very old 
plant.] 
MARCH AND MAY FLOWERS FOR A GRAVE. 
‘AVhat bulbs or flowers would best suit to plant over a 
grave, so as to be in full bloom about the 10th of March, 
and also the 10th of May ? and what is the most appropriate 
form to plant for such an occasion or anniversaries?— 
A Constant Reader.” 
[No suitable arrangement could be depended on to 
answer for a certain week. For particular periods of that 
kind you will have to purchase for the occasion when the 
months arrive. Avoid blue and yellow flowers. White 
flowers are best; and white flowers drooping, as the Snoiv- 
drop and Snouflake, best of all. Every white Narcissus is 
also very suitable.] 
AMATEUR COW-KEEPING. 
“I, with two others (neighbours), am thinking of keeping 
a cow, for the purpose of providing ourselves with good and 
pure milk. The expense, I presume, of putting it out to 
graze, and having a man to milk it, &c., would be about 
9s. or 10s. a week, possibly under that sum. We reside, all 
of us, at Lee, Kent. My milk bill comes to upwards of 5s. 
a week regularly, and is not likely to be less. One of my 
neighbours is in the same melancholy plight, and my third 
friend thinks he pays more than he ought for the manu¬ 
factured article, added to which he cannot for love or 
money—of which latter commodity he has, however, his 
