NATURE AND NATURALISTS AT BOOKHAM. 
33 
cellent, as was testified by the busy time the proprietors were 
having with their numerous patrons. 
Again assembling, the party (with an increase of two other mem¬ 
bers) then proceeded to view the “chain of magnificent ponds, ” 
At first our spirits fell somewhat, for in pond No. i we beheld 
merely a dry or almost dry hollow, and a few of the party, I am 
sorry to say, began to be sceptical. That it had been a pond 
there was no doubt, for the Ranunculus aquatilis still flourished 
in its former basin, but this was no criterion of its recent 
“wateriness,” for the plant in question survives long after its 
natural surrounding of water has been denied it. It is enabled 
to do so from its possessing two kinds of leaves, one kind being- 
adapted for a subaqueous position and the second resembling the 
leaves of a land buttercup and always standing above the water. 
It is, of course, the possession of these latter that saves the plant 
from immediate extinction when it finds its water supply “cut oft'.” 
On our reaching the second pond—or more strictly the first— 
the criticisms were reduced to a minimum, for here,although the 
want of rain was clearly perceptible, the extent of the pond was 
such that the deficiency of water was of little moment. The banks 
on the side which we approached were rich in the tall and not 
unhandsome plant known as the marsh horsetail ( Equisetum limo- 
sum\ and here the erstwhile gravy-strainer of the energetic con¬ 
ductor was especially useful, as its solid metal readily parted the 
stems and of course could not become entangled as an ordinary 
net would most probably have done. The small snail Planorbus 
albus was very frequent, and the genus was also represented by 
P. vortex , P. marginatus, P. complanatus , and P. nautileus. We 
were specially on the look-out for water-spiders here, as the con¬ 
ductor had informed us of their occurrence, and suddenly the capture 
of one was announced, and the before-mentioned gentleman of 
dragon-fly renown, who, like a special correspondent of a news¬ 
paper, was ever “on the spot,” quickly transferred it to a conven¬ 
ient receptacle in the shape of a lemonade-bottle, his other ves¬ 
sels being already somewhat replete with specimens. This, 
however, turned out to be a spider of another species, and not 
the water spider par excellence- It was most probably Dolomedes 
nitrabilis, and the most noticeable point in regard to it was the 
globular egg-cocoon which it was assiduously carrying. A little 
later the true water spider (Argyroneta aquatica) turned up and 
was bagged—or bottled. Then a “ big haul ” of toad tadpoles 
was made, and, well satisfied with results so far, we moved on to 
No. 3, on the way discovering a few plants of the “ creeping jenny” 
(.Lysimachia nummularia ) on a bank. 
The party took a rest beneath an adjacent tree before proceeding 
to investigate the natural history of this, the last of the “magnifi¬ 
cent chain of ponds.” Crawling about the grass, &c, at the base 
of the said tree, were two stone-flies ( Perla ) which were easily 
