Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/134

 CRUSTACEANS An interest in this branch of zoology cannot be traced back to a remote past in the annals of this county. The Description of Leicester Shire, by William Burton, in 1622, takes no notice of its invertebrate fauna. A Topographical History of the County of Leicester, by the Rev. J. Curtis, published in 1831, is equally neglectful. The introduction includes an article on botany, contri- buted by ' Three Loughborough botanists, Mr. Thomas Hands, Joseph Paget, Esq., and Mr. William Parkinson.' 1 This article begins by saying, ' Leices- tershire, comprehending within its boundaries, hills, valleys, and plains, alluvial and secondary strata, bogs, marshes, cultivated and waste ground, together with woods of every aspect, is peculiarly rich in its botany.' * There follows a very long list of plants, among which are several pond weeds, these and other circumstances of the description justifying the inference that this county will eventually be found as well supplied with land and freshwater crustaceans as most of our purely inland shires. At length, in 1886, we find one of the species more or less definitely mentioned. A Report of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society says : Mr. Garnar exhibited specimens of the small crustacean Asellus aquaticus, common at the bottom of ponds, and in which the circulation of the internal fluid was very distinctly seen under the microscope. He read an account of this animal extracted from several works, but stated that the principal work upon the subject was in French, and was not procurable in Leicester. 3 It is not expressly stated where the specimens were found, but, as they were alive, no doubt they came from the immediate neighbourhood of Leicester itself. The French work alluded to is the Histoire Naturelle des Crustaces d'Eau douce de Norvege, published in 1867, by the distinguished Norwegian professor, G. O. Sars. In 1894 a paper on 'the Leicestershire brooks,' by Mr. Mott, chairman of the society just mentioned, contains the calculation that there are about 450 distinct streams in the county, and about 160 species of plants to which their existence is essential, besides a small number of vertebrate animals, and a large number of invertebrates. 4 In the year 1900 Mr. F. W. Rowley, giving his inaugural address to the zoological section of the same society, made the following pertinent remarks : I may say that when I and Mr. Elliott arranged excursions to the reservoirs at Swithland, Cropston, and Thornton, it was really with a desire to interest some of the members in a branch of our work almost untouched and with a peculiar fascination of its own. For, indeed, our ditches, ponds, and reservoirs teem with material for study, and study of a serious kind ; the forms of life which we meet with have not served their purpose, as some would seem to think, when they have been utilized to compel admiration at a soiret. On the contrary they present problems for solution which tax to the utmost the abilities of the most acute and skilful observers. Further on he says : On the zoological side, Mr. Garnar has for some years made a special study of the Entomostraca, and I hope that he will at no distant date consent to let us have his results for publication in the Transactions. 5 1 Op. cit. p. vii. * Ibid. p. xxxv. 3 The Midland Naturalist, ix (1886). 4 Trans. Leic. Lit. and Phil. Sue. iii, 399. ' Ibid, v, 504 (1900). 96