A Vegetable Fisherman

"Anything now? Any twenty-poun-i trout or Continental lisli strories in tbc air?" asked a reporter of The Phila delphia Times of a tisli culturist grow rotuncl in tho governnient ernpioy. "Yes, thero is somothing new," ro plicd tho lish man. "Conioinandloolf at theso weeds." ïlie visitor took the seat indicated at a table covered with dishes containing a variety of these plants, smali iishes, magnifying glasses, and othet material incidental to to the üsh culturist1 s profcssion, and looking througb the glass handed him, saw what had apparently been a ruass of weeds become clear and distinct and resolve itself into a delicate brush-like aquatic plant, covcred over at tho juncture of the various sterns with a number of bladder-like objects of a rich green hue and seeminsly made up of innumerable facets, so that tley appeared like inimic vases of riehly-eolored metáis hammered into shape by gome fairy worker in metal. (Jlipping one of thoso little vessels from its delicate stem the fish culturist placed it upon tho slide of a microscope, through which it appeared as large as a lima bean, and still moro beautiful. It now gleamod with a pcllucid liglit, owing as was evident, to a bubble of air in tho Interior, that moved about in its prison like an opal. The cup was also seen to have a perfect lid, that opened in instead of out, and from the edgo outward extended several long, hair-like procedas, that gave the entiro object the appearance of what a specialist of crabs would cali an entromostraoean crustacean (patent applied tor.) "Now, then," said the flsh-man, "you have taken in the ohief points of the object, and you see it is a regular pitcher, bowl, or jug - cali it what you vrill - that is suspended on the plant by a delicate stem, and that it has a spring cover. Now watch the cover when I put this shot upon it." The Times man again applied his eye to the glass; the shot was placed upon the delicate lid, quickly and mysteriously disappearing. "Yes, it ha gono in. In other words," continued the speaker, "the bladder is a trap and catchea everything that pushes on the cover. By this you can see what harm my bo done, and, shifting the slideï the speaker replacod it by one that contained another of the curious trapa, though larger and having in its mouth or opening the body of a youug üsh. The tail of the little creature was completely absorbed by tho plant, and the üsh had long since given Up the struggle. "Yes, it is a veritable vegetable fisherman," said the specialist, "and one of the Iat6st discovered enemioa of the fish culturist. It is a common weed enough, and known generally as the bladderwort. It is very popular in aquariums and lish runs, and there is littlo doubt but that large numbers of fishes are destroyed by them. The thing was lirst noticed iñEngland, and that accidentally. and tho discoverer immediately went to work making experiments. It was found that out of twenty-flve fishes placed in the weed ono-half of them were in the traps in less than six hours, and judgmr from the way in whieh they were caught some people think that the plants are as much animáis as the üshes. Some experiments made here have atUfaeted considerable attontion. In ono case observed by myself one of the fishes was caught by the tail and aüother bladder had sojzed it by the heatf, and both plants were hard at work absorbingit." "Do they eat the fish?" asked the visitor. "Yes," was the reply. "The animal is taken into the bladder as far as it will go, and tfien some secret-ion is exuded that seems to assist in digesting the fish. At any rate, tho latter becomea absorbed in the plant and evidently goes to helpsustain it, which is also true of a large number of piants. In Sumatra a flower has been discovered that is twelve feet across find weighs ten or fifteen pounds, the potals being so strong that a man can jump upon them without breaking thivugh, so to spnak. Right in the center of this llower there is a round, basin-like structure that holds about a quart of liquid or water, and into this thousands of insects and even small animáis are enticed and drowned and absorbed by the plant: in other words, the oval basin is the ilowers mouth, or one of them. So with many of the pitcher plants. They are all traps, baited with peculiar odors that attract their prey. This discovery about the bladderwort is au important oae, but whother it justifies us in talons; any steps toward its extermination has not yet been determinad."