The best time for making collections at the sea-side is a day or two after the full moon, when the tide recedes to its greatest extent, and parts of the shore become exposed, where some of the finest species grow, which cannot be conveniently approached at any other time. It must be borne in mind, also, that few of the floating pieces will grow, however fresh and seemingly washed off with their root. Certain success is only to be secured by chiselling off a portion of the substance on which the weed is growing—thus transplanting it with its own soil, as it were, about its roots, into the ocean garden of the Aquarium. [Illustration] [Illustration: PLATE IV. 1. Chondrus crispus. 2. Gigartina acicularis. 3. Ceramium strictum. 4. Taonia atomaria. 5. Plocamium coccineum.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER V. THE ZOÖPHYTES. The Aquarium having been furnished with its vegetation, and rendered as picturesque as possible by the well-arranged juxtaposition of felicitously-contrasting forms and colours, the water must be allowed to settle for some days, until it is as clear as pale-green crystal, before the animals are introduced to their new home. When the Alpine scenery of the submarine landscape appears perfectly settled, and all its colours and forms are seen with beautiful distinctness through the clarified waters, then the still life is ready to be associated with the more active organizations of animated creatures. 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 vortex, like _Infusoriæ_ drawn within the fatal tentacles of the _Actinia_.