WINDOW GARDENING. 



15 



a globe or aquarium of water, concentrate upon the floor and burn the carpet. 

 Specimens of rock work are introduced at the sides or in the rear of the case ; on 

 their top are placed some pots containing ferns drooping over and covering the 

 vacancies all up. If conveniences are at hand a little fountain may be introduced, 

 and be constantly throwmg up its tiny streams of water. All this requires great 

 pains of preparation. The window completely shuts out the street view and is 

 lighted only from the top, yet is a great curiosity and with some will be worth 

 the trouble. 



For planting in such cases as the two just described, the best plants will be the 

 common English Ivy, (^Hedera helix,) which thrives in confined places of this 

 description and rapidly throws up its green foliage. The Lygodium scandens and 

 Lygodium Japonica are lovely climbing ferns and need copper wires to be trained 



to. Trichomanes radicans, Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense Asplenium Fon- 

 tanum are moisture lovers and generally used in furnishing tanks for the aqua- 

 rium. A suggestion worth heeding is to be remembered : do not commit the error 

 of procuring too large fish for the aquarium; small varieties such as the gold carp 

 are most suitable, and for every two gallon capacity of the water tank, put in 

 one carp. Of water plants the best is Vallisneria spiralis, which will grow among 

 pebbles if left undisturbed. Confervce may be introduced and allowed to run 

 over the rock or sides of the aquarium. 



A very pretty home design, hardly called a Window Garden, yet affording room 

 for some decoration, is that of a bee hive in the window. Such a hive was actually 

 placed in front of one of the library windows of the late J. C. Loudon, the famous 

 landscape gardener. This window was protected by a verandah, and the front of 



