登陆注册
4614500000040

第40章

Now for the live stock. In the crannies of every rock you will find sea-anemones (Actiniae); and a dozen of these only will be enough to convert your little vase into the most brilliant of living flower-gardens. There they hang upon the under side of the ledges, apparently mere rounded lumps of jelly: one is of dark purple dotted with green; another of a rich chocolate; another of a delicate olive; another sienna-yellow; another all but white. Take them from their rock; you can do it easily by slipping under them your finger-nail, or the edge of a pewter spoon. Take care to tear the sucking base as little as possible (though a small rent they will darn for themselves in a few days, easily enough, and drop them into a basket of wet sea-weed; when you get home turn them into a dish full of water and leave them for the night, and go to look at them to-morrow. What a change! The dull lumps of jelly have taken root and flowered during the night, and your dish is filled from side to side with a bouquet of chrysanthemums; each has expanded into a hundred-petalled flower, crimson, pink, purple, or orange; touch one, and it shrinks together like a sensitive plant, displaying at the root of the petals a ring of brilliant turquoise beads. That is the commonest of all the Actiniae (Mesembryanthemum); you may have him when and where you will: but if you will search those rocks somewhat closer, you will find even more gorgeous species than him. See in that pool some dozen large ones, in full bloom, and quite six inches across, some of them. If their cousins whom we found just now were like Chrysanthemums, these are like quilled Dahlias. Their arms are stouter and shorter in proportion than those of the last species, but their colour is equally brilliant. One is a brilliant blood-red; another a delicate sea-blue striped with pink; but most have the disc and the innumerable arms striped and ringed with various shades of grey and brown. Shall we get them? By all means if we can. Touch one.

Where is he now? Gone? Vanished into air, or into stone? Not quite. You see that knot of sand and broken shell lying on the rock, where your Dahlia was one moment ago. Touch it, and you will find it leathery and elastic. That is all which remains of the live Dahlia. Never mind; get your finger into the crack under him, work him gently but firmly out, and take him home, and he will be as happy and as gorgeous as ever to-morrow.

Let your Actiniae stand for a day or two in the dish, and then, picking out the liveliest and handsomest, detach them once more from their hold, drop them into your vase, right them with a bit of stick, so that the sucking base is downwards, and leave them to themselves thenceforth.

These two species (Mesembryanthemum and Crassicornis) are quite beautiful enough to give a beginner amusement: but there are two others which are not uncommon, and of such exceeding loveliness, that it is worth while to take a little trouble to get them. The one is Dianthus, which I have already mentioned; the other Bellis, the sea-daisy, of which there is an excellent description and plates in Mr. Gosse's "Rambles in Devon," pp. 24 to 32.

It is common at Ilfracombe, and at Torquay; and indeed everywhere where there are cracks and small holes in limestone or slate rock.

In these holes it fixes its base, and expands its delicate brown-grey star-like flowers on the surface: but it must be chipped out with hammer and chisel, at the expense of much dirt and patience;for the moment it is touched it contracts deep into the rock, and all that is left of the daisy flower, some two or three inches across, is a blue knot of half the size of a marble. But it will expand again, after a day or two of captivity, and will repay all the trouble which it has cost. Troglodytes may be found, as I have said already, in hundreds at Hastings, in similar situations to that of Bellis; its only token, when the tide is down, being a round dimple in the muddy sand which firs the lower cracks of rocks.

But you will want more than these anemones, both for your own amusement, and for the health of your tank. Microscopic animals will breed, and will also die; and you need for them some such scavenger as our poor friend Squinado, to whom you were introduced a few pages back. Turn, then, a few stones which lie piled on each other at extreme low-water mark, and five minutes' search will give you the very animal you want, - a little crab, of a dingy russet above, and on the under side like smooth porcelain. His back is quite flat, and so are his large angular fringed claws, which, when he folds them up, lie in the same plane with his shell, and fit neatly into its edges. Compact little rogue that he is, made especially for sidling in and out of cracks and crannies, he carries with him such an apparatus of combs and brushes as Isidor or Floris never dreamed of; with which he sweeps out of the sea-water at every moment shoals of minute animalcules, and sucks them into his tiny mouth. Mr. Gosse will tell you more of this marvel, in his "Aquarium," p. 48.

Next, your sea-weeds, if they thrive as they ought to do, will sow their minute spores in millions around them; and these, as they vegetate, will form a green film on the inside of the glass, spoiling your prospect: you may rub it off for yourself, if you will, with a rag fastened to a stick; but if you wish at once to save yourself trouble, and to see how all emergencies in nature are provided for, you will set three or four live shells to do it for you, and to keep your sub-aqueous lawn close mown.

同类推荐
  • South Sea Tales

    South Sea Tales

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • LAHOMA

    LAHOMA

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上玉华洞章拔亡度世升仙妙经

    太上玉华洞章拔亡度世升仙妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Divine Comedy

    The Divine Comedy

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 孙毅庵奏议

    孙毅庵奏议

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 邪王你马甲掉了

    邪王你马甲掉了

    【正文+番外完结】一朝穿越,她成了凤元王朝的草包公主?长的比花娇,名声比屎臭,位置还没坐热,便被贬回安伯侯府不受宠的嫡小姐。姨娘阴毒,庶妹伪善,生父更是冷血无情……个个恨不得对她杀之后快,却不知扮猪吃老虎是她的拿手好戏,她早已经不是原来的那个她!某日夜黑风高之时,她好心搭了一把手,来年她收获了一个美貌绝伦的腹黑王爷。初时,她得意洋洋的捏着他的双颊逼迫:“宝贝,叫一声姐姐听听!”后来,他挑起她的下颌,眯着眼诱哄:“心肝,叫一声夫君听听!”这是一个老男人和一个小女人之间那些不得不说的事。
  • 诸天万界之房车

    诸天万界之房车

    一个无敌的房车,穿梭在诸天万界。科技,仙侠的汇集!有小说,动漫,幻想,仙侠世界,在穿越各个世界的过程中证那万古无双大帝!!!
  • 谈判说服力

    谈判说服力

    这是一本告诉你最有效的谈判智慧与技巧的书。商务无处不谈判,谈判最终追求绝对说服。谈判需要强大的气场,更需要对人性的非凡领悟。谈判训练专家李力刚集数十年实战经验,从国学和人性层面妙语解读谈判智慧,并从势、道、法、术、器等角度深入阐述决定谈判气场的因素,在谈判者如何修身,谈判中如何开局、进攻、防守、回旋变通等诸多方面都提出了系统性的指导建议。全书旁征博引,却又通俗晓畅;幽默生动,而又一语中的,于轻松明快间指点迷津,可谓企业家个人和团队领悟谈判智慧、提升商务技能的不二教材!
  • 達海叢書·批注

    達海叢書·批注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 日月江湖

    日月江湖

    由破月剑和残日剑这两大神兵天器引发出江湖中沉寂已久的冤案,传说中得日月神剑者便可得天下。这两柄剑到底有多大的魔力呢?主人公陈澜驯和独孤水月无意之中得到日月神剑,并练成天下第一的日月无光剑法。从此,两人联手破解了江湖中最大的冤案——少林方丈和丐帮帮主同日而死的前因后果。原来,这一切都是魔教莫无敌的惊天大阴谋,他想一统江湖,然后兴复北元,而最终……
  • 狂阎少主的万有引力

    狂阎少主的万有引力

    【此文现属于5折VIP】血腥世界的恐怖,黑暗笼罩的人生,背叛的痛苦,是他的人生。高高在上,不可触摸,是他的世界,而不是她。她是平凡的小女子,渴望得到的只是一份心的平静。无意之间的相遇,交缠的世界。被神背弃的两个人,到底是他的骄傲和阴冷恋上了她的温柔和平凡还是她的平凡和温柔得到了信赖。喋血的温柔,到底心是谁的归属?*他对她说,“女人就像钱一样的肮脏,为了得到自己想要的,——不择手段。”她对他说,“男人就像地狱的恶魔,从来只为自己着想,不顾别人的想法。”他对她说,“你不要爱上我,因为爱上我的女人都会死的很惨。”她对他说,“我的世界没有爱,只有死亡。”******************同类文文推荐:叶子的味道:《诱惑小阿姨》:转身:《变身灰姑娘》:静海深蓝:《诱惑总裁之叛情》:芸莎:《掠情酷总裁》:焰夜:《捡个杀手当情人》:
  • 那年夏天

    那年夏天

    忘不了,忘不了,忘不了你的错,忘不了你的好……我又在听这首歌了,听到这旋律,我就想起你家巷子里那棵梧桐树,站在树下透过花墙正好看见那排落地窗,窗玻璃永远一尘不染,你就站在窗前,抱着一本书,白裙子,黑头发,脸颊浮起的酒窝……这一切真像昨天的事。绍琪站在思清路21号门牌下,打量着铁栅门后这个没有任何标志的小院,紫藤花架下的滑梯、跷跷板、秋千。
  • 唯识三十论

    唯识三十论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 秋歌

    秋歌

    写作于1975年。讲述的是一个自尊自重的19岁女孩董芷筠,因弱智的弟弟竹伟闯了祸,认识了富家子弟殷超凡。殷超凡被美丽能干的芷筠吸引住了。
  • 想个法子弄死你

    想个法子弄死你

    杀手杀人一点都不容易,有些人拿钱,大多数人拿命。