In conclusion, let me mention that it is an error to suppose, as many persons do, that putrid water alone contains life. Infusoria occur, as before hinted, in the clear waters of the ocean, in the water that we drink daily, and also in the limpid burn that flows through our valleys, or trickles like a silver thread down the mountain side.[1] [1] Ehrenberg states that Infusoria are in a higher state of organization when taken from pure streams than from putrid waters. 'Where the pool Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible, Amid the floating verdure millions stray. Each liquid too, whether it pierces, soothes, Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air, Though one transparent vacancy it seems, Void of their unseen people. These, concealed By the kind art of forming Heaven, escape The grosser eye of man.' Let it be remembered, too, that Infusoria, when found in either do not themselves constitute the impurity of fresh or salt water; they merely act as 'nature's invisible scavengers,' whose duty it is to remove all nuisances that may spring up; and most unceasingly do these tiny creatures labour in the performance of their all-important mission of usefulness. CHAPTER III. Sea Anemones. 'The living flower that, rooted to the rock, Late from the thinner element, Shrunk down within its purple stem to sleep, Now feels the water, and again Awakening, blossoms out All its green anther-necks.' [Illustration: 1 Sir J. G. Dalyell's celebrated ACTINIA (Drawn from Nature Jan. 1860.) 2 A. CRASSICORNIS 3 CAVE DWELLER (_A. troglodytes_)] III. No marine objects have become more universally popular of late years than Sea Anemones. Certainly none better deserve the attention which has been, and is daily bestowed upon them by thousands of amateur naturalists, who cannot but be delighted with the wondrous variety of form, and the beauteous colouring which these zoophytes possess. A stranger could scarcely believe, on looking into an aquarium, that the lovely object before him, seated motionless at the base of the vessel, with tentacula expanded in all directions, was not a simple daisy newly plucked from the mountain side, or it may be a blooming marigold or _Anemone_ from some rich parterre--instead of being, in reality, a living, moving, animal-flower.