IN SEARCH OF SUN-TAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2181, 19 December 1895, Page 27

IN SEARCH OF SUN-TAN.

it ia pleasant; on sonny mornings at this time of year to get up an hour or two before work i itna and go roaming in the Town Belt or other accessible place near at hand. Morniug is itself the best part of the day, and that day npon which we enjoy an hoar or two's outing is the best day of the week to us who are cooped np during the greater pait of it. Groat is the pity, or at least one often thinks so, that we cannot always slick to work during bad weather and go out to enjoy the sun when Jfc shines. Too often, alas ! while catching "sight of bright, unsullied skies beyond grimy brick-cased windows must we a'gh for free days under sun and shower. When we are free to roam, which isn't often, it all too frequently happens that LEADEN SKIES AND AERIAL CATAHACTS effectually dispel our hopes of a pleasant outing. Once in a while, however, even we, the unfavoured ones of Nature's ceaseless interaction*, are blessed with a free day that is fine as well as free. It is then our delight to go off to some one of the near hills or to the coast, and while enjojiDg chiefly the sunshine and sweet fresh air we like also to pry out some of Nature's minuter beauties spread everywhere about. For such recreative purposes no town anywhere could surpass Dttnedin. At any rate, if in New Zealand or out of it there be another town to excel ours in diversity of ■urroundinge, I have neither seen nor heard ■ about it. For stream and valley, bill, dale, mountain, bush land and open, rock shore * and beach, Dunedin is a ONCBETE PABADrSE FOR THE NATURELOYER. To walk in eeighbourhoods so fair and fruitful and see and hear nothing cave the obvious would indeed be shameful. For amid all such scenes are to be heard undertones of life, some of them audible only to poet and artist, but others appealing mo&t to those of us with scientific leanings. Our ears may be but indifferently attuted to hear and our eyes to see, and doubtless we miss much, being thus only able to comprehend a small part of what lavish Mother Nature spreads out before us. But whenever and wherever we go a -rambling we like to see all we can, even though it may be impossible for ua to watch for any length of time life processes unfolding beneath our eyes. Often what we do sea utterly coafounds onr power of expression, whil* at other time* the ruere sight of some creature or plant may suggest thought* that carry ns to the very „ CONFINES OF THE KNOWN. There are so- many plant and animal puzzles to worry over in thia world that no one need have any difficulty in finding a few. We found such a one, a plant, not long since without going out of doots at all. It was in a dish of water in which a Chinese Lily had been growirg. Within a faw days from that on which the bulb was removed the water became of a. bright e.me'rald green colour.

Upon examining a drop of this water under a microscope we foumd it to be swarming with ' thoueaada of little spherical green organisms. Volvox globator, f» thia curious vegetable . epeoies is named, is a very uncommon plant indeed. Unlike many other lowly plant forms -which begin as swimmers, it continues to swim freely daring its whole life time. It is a colonial organism, being apparently made op of a gronp of one ; celled fresh water plants common in all standing water. As it roll 3 . through the water, propelled by its waving cilia, it is not 'easy to believe that Volvox is other than used to bs bolieved,an animalcule. Scientific investigators say that its body is a hollow sphere, and it is a strange fact that eggs and spores of many other water-living creatures find their way into its interior. Even rotifers are sometimes hatched oat inside of Volvox. .When its lodgers become numerous and clamorous for escape Volvox die?, and its gaests erupt its corpse and seek freer quarters. In the same drop of water in which we have deposited Volvox upon the microscope slide we are pretty certain to find such forms as those figured with it-. They are rather vsguely named " infusorians," and are very little kuown save to specialists; Their kinds aie legion, and all seem, as we watch them, to be chiefly engaged in the serious business of feedicg — very gluttonously, too ; but at times their diversions in the way of QUARRELLING AND LOVE-MAKING are extremely interesting. A. plant of a totally different kind is Nitella. It, too, is a water-liver, casting anchor, by means of long, root-like rMzoids, ■ at the bottom of both running and still fresh waters. It is to be . found, though not very readily alwaye, in the Opoho Creek at Pelichet Bay. As it lies in ttriugy masses upon the bottom, it looks neither interesting nor beautiful; but take some of it up, drop it in a wide-mouthed bottle of water, and carry it home. It is" sensitive, and will need rest after this rough handling ; but in a few days, if kept in tm ordinary room, it will be fit for

closer scrutiny. We gently lift a branch from the water, snip a suitable fragment, and lay it upon a glass Blip, adding a drop o£ water, which needs to be flattened down by the euperim position of a piece of thin cover glass. At first we may be disappointed, for only green stems which look like smooth cabbage stalks are visible. Amid these FIERCE LOOKING MONSTERS PROWL AND LURK. ! The sportive and pngnaciouß rotifer is there runuicg tilt with his more cumbrous neighbour, the bear-animacule. To and fro across the watery field we see passing and repassirg creatures that eurely must be the very smallest of living things. Thay are not, though ; far from it, indeed. As we watch Nitella we suddenly percaiva that which we were looking for. The gieen etems are no longer dull and lifeless ; through tbeir transparent walls countless granules are seen to bs moving steadily and rapidly up and down, round and round, with as perfect regularity as that of the blood in one's arteries. The actual stream of living protoplasm in and with which they travel is not visible, being perfectly transparent, yet is nothing surely more beautiful and wonderful than this sight. It is a veritable manifestation of "LIFE IN MOTION," and we do not marvel that our friends ask again and again to see this particular sight. ] For those who have not seen it, it is difficult . to believe that we can look through a plant stem and clearly view its sap thus in motion in every joint ; but let tho3e who doubt get some microsccpiet friend to thow them one of the finest sights to be seen in Nature's Wonderlands. DIATOMS. | Sticking out from the green stems and leaflets of Nitella we are pretty sure to find numerous ,

rod-lika bodies, which move slowly from placeto place, and somewhat resemble in form carpenters' lead pencils. There are countless species, all marvellously beautiful in form, but these long pencil-like ones are commonest. They are Diatoms, and although clever observers have been studying and observing them for many years and have discovered a great deal in regard to their lives and forms, there is yet much to learn. Diatoms are plants too, but they never take root, or develop flowers, or ripen and cast abroad seeds like our garden plants. The living substance of Diatoni3 is pure protoplasm, and this clothes shells of flint, which are, without doubt, among the most perfect of natural objects. These sheila are so fine that they are commonly used as test objacts to prove the quality of high-power microscopic lenses. Leases that show lucidly the markings upon Diatom shells are woith buying. These FLINTY LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF NATURE'S WORKMANSHIP are unlike any shells we know by eyesight. Until the other day no one knew bow Diatom 3 succeeded in moving themselves from place to place. Then a clever Garmac, Professor Bihschli, found it out in a manner rather simple, though requiring much previous knowledge to be applied. He had a large Diatom of a common sorb under view in the microscope when it occurred to him to put a little Indian ink in the water. Then he soon saw what hundreds of others had i been looking for ever since Diatoms were first known. He saw the plant throw out ahead long filaments of protoplasm which it seemed to anchor at their furthest extremities ; then it slowly dragged itself forward until the anchored tipa W6re behind ■where they were released and worked forward again. It may be, however, that the plant , moves by driving these filaments against the N water. Sometimes one filament is cast ahead and another astern, and the Diatom revolves. Erer/one who has observed live Diatoms know* that they move forward in a slow, jerky manner ; but until that German observer dropped Indian ink in the water no explanation of how they do it was .forthcoming. As it is, for some time yet to come natural history books will continue to tell us that no ona can say how a Diatom moves. ! Diatoms are found in all waters, and in moist soils, &c. In our great South Polar Oc?an they are the most important group of living things. That seem 3 a startling assertion, yet it is true. Upon feawaeds and in rock-pools, as well as in our Jakes and creeks, they^jccur abundantly. We will return t© them upon another occasion.

During one of our recent RAMBLES IN SEARCH OF SUN-TAN we came upon a small pool in a place where no pool used to be. It had been filled by the too copious rains of November, when we had more moisture than we needed, while our less fortunate neighbours "on the other side" were trying to propitiate the rain doctor. In our little pond we were not long in detecting the presence of seveial kinds of animals *&pparently quite at home there. To puzzle out how various creatures get so soon into such temporary miniature lakes is always worth while, though we will not stay to do it now. As we approached a beetle left the surface and plunged to the bottom, where its further movements were bid among rotting leaves and other debris. It seems | entirely fitted for aquatic life, and one would hardly expect to see it dart through the air as freely as it just now dived through the water. Upon its back, however, beneath those rigid-looking elytrse, there lie carefully folded a pair of fine wings, which it prefers

only to sport during the night. UDlike many amphibious creatures it is an airbreather only, and that is why it comes up periodically, whips a fragment of atmoaphera under its elytra, and drops to the bottom again. Very likely it spent yesterday in another pool, and to-morrow may see it in a third one. Instinct bids it seek the water as dawn approaches, bat instincS fails to show it the difference between water and that which* merely looks like water. Accordingly it is often found dead upon garden frames of a morning ; mistaking the shimmer of glass for that of a pool, it daßhes at it and kills iter-if. Whsn there are neither frogs nor newts beetles are the giants of such pools, which, however, usually team with strange and wonderful forms of minuter siza. To wheel animalcules (rotifert), infusores, <kc, we have already made passing allmion ; they are common in such places. We may, more rarely, find the organlesg aroceba, GUAOKFUL WAVING BELL- ANIMALCULES," parhaps a hydra or two, and other microscopic forms. We are almost certain also to see awift-moving, strangely-formed lan as of i various small aerial insects. Without a net, J and merely by pushing a small, wide- j mouthed bottle about among the fringitg grass of our tiny lakelet, we are pretty certain to capture a few specimens of very J minute crustaceans. Moat conspicuous of these, from their eize and method of progression, are the common water fleas, jerkily darting from point to point. Much le*s in aiz9, but more beautiful in form, is Cyclops, a wee lobster, perhaps one- twentieth of an inch in length. Oar rough sketch was made from a living specimen, a female, which ! happened to have a couple of five eggclusters attached when placed under the microscope. 1 Leavir g our little pond, and mounting the hillside, we are soon far enough skyward to j be able to erijoy the wealthful plethora of i beautiful outlooks trending away in various directions. Upon this day at least, earth, air, and ocean seem at rest. With fragrant manuka for a cushion and a boulder for a chair-back, we recline and ' send towards heaven fragrant incense in the form of tobacco smoke. Suggestions oE MARVELLOUS AND ALL-EMBRAOING EVOLUTIONARY PKOCESSKS crowd in upon us a? we gaz^ around upon a mimic universe teeming with food for thought and reflection. Near by are growing dwarf forests of very pretty little club mosses — ruddy yellow, vigorous-looking plants which look as if they meant to go on perpetuating their kind for a lorg time yet, quite unaffected by the fate of their gigantic congeners of carboniferous times. Here, too, in another spot, where the soil is richer and less fern besefc, are growing a few orchids of a common New Zealand sort. OE the orchid j group it is plain truth to Bay that the more we know the more we wonder. AH its membersare extraordinary in their inflorescence. Although our New Zealand species are none of them conspicuous flowering plants, yet they have their own great peculiarities. Anyone can roughly make this out by merely cursory examination of the orchid we mention — Pterostylis banksii. Compare it, part for part, withan ordinary flower, using Mr Q-. M. Thomson's excellent class-book of botany, wherein the stracture of Pteroßtylis is deary illustrated, as a guide, if necessary, and its surprisiug modifications of parts will be clearly seen. About processes of fertilisation and of insects which bring these about, extremely little is yet known in regard to our native orchids. It is a five fiald for those who combine with love of Nature the possession of leisure daring whioh to indulge it.

This orchid, with its animal-like flower," is easily grown in a pot, and among other plants LOOKS QUITE A FLORAL CURIOSITY. Suitably mounted and examined under a moderate power its ripe seeds are seen to be encased in a sort of net, an appearance which we have attempted, not very successfully, to reproduce above. This little plant seems to maintain itself well amid the strife of contanding newcomers. It is to be found in abundance everywhere about DunedlD, and some of the finest ones I have seen were growing among meadow grass, and seemed to bo better rather than worse off because of tbeir surroundings. We hope it will long survive, and not it only, but many others of our cherished natives, threatened by sturdy immigrants from abroad. And bow aggressive those immigrants are, to be sure. Broom, gorse, daug-rose, briar, and elder-tree are', too frequently met with where thoy ought not to be, to ba kindly looked upon ; albeit we are certain to find pleasure in the spectacle of their blossoming. The hawthorn, too, surely it blooms with us here as it never did in Britain ! In the Botanic Garden) 1 , at Littlebourne, and elsewhere during November trees of this kind were clad with blossom in a style that I, at least, have not seen surpassed. Among introduced plants that have come to stay, in wild condition? as well as in our gardens, is yarrow, or mil-foil, as some prefer to call it. Yarrow, an old friend, is as common on roadsides, sand-dunes, and waste lands of the Home country as any plant almost. Its white stars brighten up many a- spot where scarce another flower is ever seen. Its flowers are also in great repute among old women amateur Doctors, who brew from them a decoction which is NOT THE DHINK OF PLEASURE DV ANY MEANS. Cultivated varieties are well worthy of a place in the garden, but care must be taken to prevent its underground rhizomes from traversing the whole neighbourhood, as is its natural habit. It is a most profuse bloomer: one plant that I grew a few years ago, with deep megenta- coloured flowers, was a joy to look upon all through summer. White yarrow is common about Opoho and Far-

qaharson'B farm; to see it reminds me of dear old comrades of long-past, out-of door, eunny days Bpent among the piaes and firs and heather of fragrant woods npon the margin of the great North Sea. Durlsig a recent, ramble along the shores of Wjclilfe Bay wo saw, npon the boulders uncovered at low tide, great numbers of Ascidians. The Ascidian, or Bea-squirt, as it is usually called, is a qaeerly shapeless and fur from strikinglooking animal, but all the same it has points about it that are as strange and wonderful as anything to be found in Nature's Wonderlands. Our space is almost filled, and we must return again by-and-bye to have a loieurely peep at the sea-squkt. But this humble animal, stuck upon a stone or a doad shell, if it could speak would assure us that it had "Been better days." It would expatiate upon its infancy, during wbioh it swam freely through its native waters; it would tell us how in those days it owned a beautiful tail, and bow, bid away amid the musclos of that tail, lay concealed ONE OF NATURE'S PBENTICE EFFOBTB TO CONSTRUCT A BACKBONE — an actual gelatinous rod very like, indeed, to the first foreshadowing of every real backbone owned by every individual member of the great sub-kingdom Vertebrata. If it was a very honest Ascidian it would also admit that a too great inclination towards a settled life caused its downfall ; that it got so in the babit of sitting on its tail upon rocks and other resting places that it finally sat down not to rise again, lost its chance of a backbone, lost its pretly shape, its nerves, and became a mere two-necked " leather boLtel." Upon the same day as that upon which we examined our Accidian^ someone picked up a fragment of a " brittle- . star," which now re- ' poses in a tube of spirits upon my table here. Tne stw fishes are a * remarkable group altogether, and the brittle-stars are specially so. Everyone almost knows how difficult it is to secure a com' plete specimen of this perverse animal. During the famous voypge of the Challenger the dredges often came up full of brittlestars, which, however, were no sooner out of the water than they set-to snapping themselves in pieces. It .was scarcely possible to secure one whole specimen from dozens of bucketfuls brought up. The story of the brittle-atars is of special interest and value to students of evolution, as is also that of the even loss known " f oather stars." It is only since the early part of this present century that the life history of the latter has been known Everyone has seen mantel* and table tops made from pieces of " en- : crinital " limestone. Even some of our ; famous old churches in England are enj tirely built of it. The rock bearing the above name is almost entirely composed of fossil " stone lilies " or " encrinltes," beautiful litne-encased animals, not now found in British seas but common in warmer parts of the ocean. When our century was youngr, a naturalist dredging in Cork Harbour thought he had discovered a Britishwpecle*, however. He was working along the shores of the harbour when he saw what he took to be one of those sea flowora SPBEADINO ITS STONY ABMS IN SEARCH OF FOOD, for its petals are living arms which reach out after prey. While he watched the moving tentacle?, he saw the feathery head drop off the stem and float away with the tide. Watching tho dismembered head of what he took to be a true " stone-lily," be discovered that it was not dead, but had simply dropped off the stem where it had grown, and started an independent life as a " feather-star." The spreading branches of the little sea flower had become a living, moving star fi*h. The stem, too, continued to live, and from fresh buds other starfishes were produced. These, again, as they journeyed onward though life, produced eggs which, settling on the eea floor, grew to be stone flowers and starfishes in their turn. Of certain plants not infrequently mat with during our rambles it must be admitted tbat wo would rather hare thoir room than their company, j According to some of our less reflective friends, almost every introduced plant is a nuisance; bat it may be as well to bear in mind that we have a few native nuisances, and among theso we reckon biddy-bid and bush-lawyer. There are native nettles also, bub it is easier to keep out of their way than to keep clear of the other two. When one does get amongst them it is as well to keep one's hands in one's pockets, else the nettle proves itself to be A HEGUIiA-R HyrODEUMFC INJECTOB. The bush- lawyer, like others of that family sometimes, does not scruple to use sharp practice when occasion serves. Viewed as a pest, however, I prefer lawyer to biddy-bid. When we get away from lawyer we leave it behind , but when we get away from biddybid we oarry it (save the bull) along with at. j Why we cannot halp doing so will be quite apparent on inspection of the rough sketch of one of Its harpoons shown at the bead of this paragraph. It is no part of oat desire to kill and

" collect " every living thing we meet with during our rambles. Collecting has had its day in tbe past, and the necessity no longer exists. What animals are, and the truly marvellous steps by which they appear to have become what thoy are, can be largely learnt from the many excellent books now available even to the humblest student. What animals, and plants as well, do, and how they do it, can be seen by study of the living forms only— never of dead ones ; and, after all, »b has been w«U said, this is realljr themostobarmirgpartof Natural Hißtory. Merely to saunter leisurely along a road-side, such as that of our Town Belt towards Maori Hill, keeping an eye upon the wayside plants, is as good as anything, for me at least. We may not all be likeminded, but none of us are very extreme In the opposite opinion. Last Sunday morning I enjoyed such a walk, despite the foggy drizzle, and returned filled with dalight and wonder at what camo • under my notice. Enough has been -done, in all conscience, to render the Belt itself, in places, not very desirable to enter; but I left the road, and essayed to scramble beneath water-laden boughs, which SHOOK MINIATURE SHOWER-BATHS UPON HE as I passed. Tbe first thing that caught my particular attention was a fine group of native mistletoe, growing fresh and green, with half-grown berries, upon the branoh oS a small tree, Carpodetus serratus. Christmas is almost upon u», and certainly this unexpected peep of mistletoe in its natural abode was, in a way, seasonable. It looked a pretty plant, too, and I lingered near it a little while, occupied with thoughts conjured up by its appearance. Scientifically considered, it is a perfect parasite, and its history is a most interesting one. When Dunedin gets to be as orderly as it onght to be, old kerosene tint>, bottlea (both broken and whole), rejected matfcresaes, defunct crockery, &c , will be less in evidence in its splendid Belt than they now are. That they, are very discouraging t# plant life is quite plain, and the wonder if that in some parts anything of beauty ii still to be found. Within a few feet of th« tree on which the mUtleto grows, a plant which seems to unite the foliage of a sedg« with tho inflorescence ef a rush is living and thriving on the oold wet clay. Quite close to it ia a sedge, with long flower spikes from ' which a few GRACEFUL* FREELY-MOVING STAMBNS bang out, ready for tbe breeza that will carry their fertilising pollen away on a possible message of usofulnesp, or — what is more likely — to be wasted r«sultlessly. Ferns and the BoedliDgs of many plants were there too, and shrubby members of tbe coprosma tribe ; waxy-white parsonsia too, whose flower masses have been a delight to look upon for weeks past. Upon the clayey slopes along the roadside grow many floweripg plants that even my untutored eye recognises for old acquaintances. Pretty epilobiums, which favour spots where rain water is wont lo trickle down ; if I mistake not a large species, common among rocky brooksidos at Home, is Tennyson's " Flower in the CranDied Wall.? The daisy has also taken up its abode here, and found a home in every way suited to its needs. Its native and much less bright and vigorous cousin is not uncommon eitiber. The native geranium, Microphyllum, sweetest and most winsome of small local fbwerfcg plants, displays its pink petals amongst tbe grass in several spoti. Tale Edelweiss, soon to be dis- . closing their bronzy, yellow-oalyxed flowers, are dotted all over the surface of the bare clay. Here too are- tiny seedling veronicas that in a few yearn will have become sturdy, flower-covered shrubs. Upon how little da they live and thrive and blossom ! Their lives seem lik« a reproach upon the restless, grasping, never- satisfied spirit of our own kind. It is hard to believe them unconicioufl, automatic; easier to believe with the poot who imagines that Perchance the soul that tremblas in the seed Has faint foreshadowing^ of leaf and flower ; Within its secret heart perhaps is freed"* Some subtle preicience ot tho forest's power.