Hyssop

“ In one space that was fairly clear I planted a bit of Hyssop, an old sweet herb whose [122] scent I delight in; it grows into a thick bush-like plant full of purple flower in the late summer, when it attracts quantities of bumble-bees. It is a capital wall-plant, and has sown its own seed, till there is a large patch on the top and some in its face, and a broadly-spreading group in the border below. It is one of the plants that was used in the old Tudor gardens for edgings; the growth is close and woody at the base, and it easily bears clipping into shape. ”

“ Daisies, periwinkles, feverfew, hyssop, lavender, rosemary, rue, sage, wormwood, camomile, thyme and box, were used for this purpose: a German horticulturist observes that hyssop was preferred as the most convenient; box however gradually obtained the preference. The Jesuit Rapin claims for the French the merit of bringing this plant into use, and embellishes his account of it by one of those school-boy fictions which passed for poetry in his days, and may still pass for it in his country. He describes a feast of the rural gods:
Adfuit et Cybele, Phrygias celebrata per urbes ”

“ Hyssop is an aromatic plant, which grows upon walls. Its stalks are less than two feet long, so that our Lord's mouth seems not to have been raised higher above the ground than such a stalk in a man's outstretched arm could reach. ”

“ All hyssop which has a distinctive name is forbidden, simple hyssop is allowed; Grecian hyssop, colored hyssop, Roman hyssop, desert hyssop, are forbidden, and that of the unclean heave-offering is forbidden, but if it were of the clean (heave-offering) one should not sprinkle with it, but if one sprinkled with it, it is allowed. Men must not sprinkle with the sprouts or the berries of hyssop. When sprinkled with the sprouts, they are not prevented from entering the temple. ”

“ When growing in abundance, as it does in some damp pastures in Switzerland, it becomes dangerous to cattle. G. peruviana is known to possess similar properties.
The hyssop (’ezob) of Scripture (Ex. xii. 22; Lev. xiv. 4, 6; Numb. xix. 6, 18; 1 Kings v. 13 (iv. 33) ; Ps. li. 9 (7) ; John xix. 29) , a wall-growing plant adapted for sprinkling purposes, has long been the subject of learned disputation, the only point on which all have agreed being that it is not to be identified with the Hyssopus officinalis, which is not a native of Palestine. ”

“ In this ceremony, according to some rabbins, "the living bird signified that the dead flesh of the leper was restored to soundness; the cedar-wood, which is not easily corrupted, that he was healed of his putrefaction; the scarlet thread, wool, or fillet, that he was restored to his good complexion; and the hyssop, which was purgative and odoriferous, that the disease was completely removed, and the bad scent that accompanied it entirely gone." ”

“ Lavender and Michaelmas Daisies, with sweet herbs for the kitchen, just as it should be in such a garden.
Some of these old pot-herbs are beautiful things deserving a place in any flower garden. Sage—for instance—a half shrubby plant with handsome grey leaf and whorled spikes of purple flowers; a good plant both for winter and summer, for the leaves are persistent and the plant well clothed throughout the year. Hyssop is another such handsome thing, of the same family, with a quantity of purple bloom in the autumn, when it is a great favourite with the butterflies and bumble bees. ”

“ Talking of octopuses, the swim-bladders of deep-sea fishes are filled with almost absolutely pure oxygen. C’est la vie—Gumbril shrugged his shoulders.
In Alpine pastures the grasshoppers start their flight, whizzing like clockwork grasshoppers. And these brown invisible ones reveal themselves suddenly as they skim above the flowers—a streak of blue lightning, a trailing curve of scarlet. Then the overwing shuts down over the coloured wing below and they are once more invisible fiddlers rubbing their thighs, like Lady Capricorn, at the foot of the towering flowers. ”

“ All the species burrow expertly in the sand, not entirely, but so as just to leave exposed the two eyes, which, like the garret-windows of a house (as Captain Harris says of the eyes of the Hippopotamus) , are placed on the very summit of the head.
On the weeds and sea-grass those pretty Prawns are abundant which have been called Æsops, after the old hump-backed fabulist, because of the projection of the third segment of the abdomen dorsally, giving to these little Crustacea a curiously deformed appearance, when extended. ”

“ Minute Mollusca, both bivalve and univalve, uncouth-formed Crustacea, tiny Starfishes, and especially Annelida, will pretty certainly reward the investigator. The last-named Class occurs in remarkable abundance and variety; while if, after you have gone round the glass, noticing particularly the very edge of the surface-line, you pass your eye, assisted by the lens, carefully over the surfaces of the bits of stone, you will probably find many more creatures, such as tube-dwelling Annelides, the smaller Zoophytes, and several species of the delicate Bryozoa. ”

“ The leap of a hooked fish is always an exciting episode to the angler with red blood in his veins—exciting because as an offset to its probable capture there is the very possible contingency of its escape by throwing out the hook, or by breaking away. So with each leap of the bass the hopes and fears of the angler are constantly exercised, while his pulses quicken and his enthusiasm is aroused. Game fishes often leap a few inches above the surface in play, or to catch a low-flying insect ”

“ Of these, some, such as men, horses, birds, fishes, snails, slugs, oysters, corals, and sponges, are not in the least like the lobster. But other animals, though they may differ a good deal from the lobster, are yet either very like it, or are like something that is like it. The cray fish, the rock lobster, and the prawn, and the shrimp, for example, however different, are yet so like lobsters, that a child would group them as of the lobster kind, in contradistinction to snails and slugs ”

“ THE MOLLUSCS, ETC. The curious floral forms of the Zoöphytes have, as yet, attracted the greatest degree of attention among the constructors of marine Aquaria; yet other forms of ocean life offer equal, if not superior, opportunities for curious observation, and are equally well calculated to bear the confinement of the tank. Among them all, none more than the Molluscs, especially the shell-bearing division, which merits the careful attention of the student of Nature, as forming some of her most singular manifestations. ”

“ This same genus includes a species (Œga spongiophila) which lives in the magnificent sponge, the Euplectella. We know also a certain number of isopods which prefer the interior of their neighbour’s body, and instal themselves in the cavity of the mouth, either to fish at the same time as their host, or to seize the food on its passage; others are of such a cruel nature, that they make no scruple to establish themselves in the stomach of a peaceable white fish. ”

“ Besides all these more or less temporary visitors, however, there are numerous species, even in the inshore waters, which are adapted to a floating life, and pass their whole existence as members of the plankton. Copepoda of many kinds, some Mysidæ, Amphipods like Hyperia—which is commonly found sheltering under large jellyfish—some species of actively swimming Isopods, and many other forms, are only to be captured by the tow-net; and now and then, in certain localities, winds and currents may drive into coastal waters shoals of species whose proper home is the open ocean. ”

“ TAHITIAN ANGLING. that the ends of the pole are capable of being lowered or elevated by a rope, which proceeds from the fork. A man sits in the high stern, holding this rope in his hand, and watching the capture of the fishes. From the end of each projecting arm depends the line, with the pearl-hook fashioned to resemble the Flying-fish. To increase the deception, bunches of feathers are fastened to the tips of the arms, to represent those aquatic birds which habitually follow the Flying-fish in its course, to seize it in the air. ”

“ Here will be found hydroids, sea-anemones, starfishes, sea-urchins, barnacles, mussels. In the shallow water, crabs and shrimps are crawling along the sandy bottom or are lying concealed in the mud, while schools of little fishes scoot across the pool. If a fine silk net is drawn through the water and then emptied into a glass dish a whole new world of creatures will be revealed—jellyfishes, ctenophores, hydroids, eggs of fish, tiny copepods, the larvae or young of sea-urchins, starfishes, or oysters. ”

“ For fly-fishing, a rod of eight ounces, click reel, braided linen line, size E, leader of three or four feet, single gut, and black-bass flies such as silver-doctor, red ibis, Abbey, soldier, oriole, coachman, etc., on hooks Nos. 1 to 2, will be found to answer in skilful hands. A heavier rod may be used when the fish run larger, and also flies on hooks a size or two larger. Very small phantom minnows, spoons, or squids may be often used with success when the fish are running in schools in the spring. ”

“ Before speaking of Molluscs, or Crustacea, or of Fish, suitable to the Aquarium, let us first devote all our attention to our Zoöphytes, those singular creatures whose strange instincts and anomalous forms have been mainly instrumental in attracting the attention of many classes of the public to that curious interest in Aquaria, which is fast spreading into a mania, threatening to absorb all others in its 52vortex, like Infusoriæ drawn within the fatal tentacles of the Actinia. ”

“ In the unbounded freedom of their native sea, and in the limited dimensions of a glass vase, they are alike sprightly. By rapid pump-like contractions of their nectocalyx, they dart through the water, and shoot round and round, almost with the force and swiftness of a swimming fish. The summit of the bell always goes foremost, whether the direction of the movement be vertical, horizontal, or, as is most commonly the case, oblique; and the tentacles, and the long white polypite, drag behind in trailing lines. ”

“ The whole development of the mollusks, from the lowest bivalve to the highest univalve form, has tended to the production of head-limbs, and a compact, bag-like body. In their naked state their evolution is limited by this hereditary constitution. Two modes of motion are possessed, the swimming and the creeping. For use in the first there is a fin-like expansion of the body, which enables them 16 move with much rapidity, while backward motion is gained by expulsion of water from between the arm-membranes. ”

“ And the timid mollusks, trembling and succulent pulp, have fabricated for their protection the strong shields of their valves,—two concave walls that on opening form their door, and on closing, their house.
A bit of flesh protrudes outside these shells, like a white tongue. In some it takes the form of a sole, and serves as a foot, the mollusk marching with his dwelling upon the back of this unique support. In others it is a swimmer, and the shell, opening and shutting its valves like a propelling mouth, ascends in a straight line to the surface, falling afterwards with the two shields closed. ”

“ These animals fight one another with their claws, just as rams fight with their horns, raising them and striking their opponents; they are often also seen crowded together in herds. So much for the mode of life of the crustacean.
Molluscs are all carnivorous; and of molluscs the calamary and the sepia are more than a match for fishes even of the large species. The octopus for the most part gathers shellfish, extracts the flesh, and feeds on that; in fact, fishermen recognize their holes by the number of shells lying about. ”

“ There are several species of each. And so accurately has nature adhered to her plan of operations, that we find the corals of that early age doing the same offices, and piling up similar submarine reefs, by which these busy little architects are still distinguished. The mollusca of the period are very numerous, embracing almost every order and form of shell that are found in our present seas, though wholly of different species; conchifera, brachiopoda, gasteropoda, cephalopoda, pteropoda, beside the heteropoda, of which there are no existing analogues. ”

“ The most striking difference in the Mollusca, as compared with the Articulata, is seen in the entire want of that segmentation which is so apparent in the Insects or Centipedes. The body of an Oyster, a molluscous animal, is a soft mass, and, though possessed of organs, never exhibits the slightest trace of joints, as seen in the higher worms, insects, etc. ”

“ The nature student will not attempt to stock up his aquarium immediately. He should always leave room for one more fish or bug. One year I started with a lone newt and before the summer was over I had thirteen sunfish, pickerel, bass, minnows, catfish, carp, trout, more newts, pollywogs or tadpoles, five kinds of frogs, an eel and all sorts of bugs, waterbeetles and insects. I soon found that one kind of insect would kill another and that sometimes my specimens would grow wings over night and fly away. ”

“ There is nothing like this in the vegetable world; but an exactly corresponding structure is met with in the shells of two kinds of existing animals, the pearly Nautilus and the Spirula, and only in them. These141 animals belong to the same division—the Cephalopoda—as the cuttle-fish, the squid, and the octopus. But they are the only existing members of the group which possess chambered, siphunculated shells; and it is utterly impossible to trace any physiological connection between the very peculiar structural characters of a cephalopod and the presence of a chambered shell. ”

“ As mentioned on page 12, bivalves do not leave their beds to feed, but push the syphon through the sand to the water and draw the water down one syphon and eject it through the other, absorbing the animal and vegetable matter as it passes through the mollusc’s stomach. ”