110 THE WATER CABINET. 
best for the cabinet, on account of the limited space in which 
they must be kept, and the elegance they impart to the 
collection. In the larger jars it would be well to keep 
some tufts of vallisneria in order to propagate it to supply 
vacancies in the tanks. When the stock has been housed 
in the cabinet, whatever is left may be transferred to the 
bell glass for further examination. It would be better 
not to wash or disturb the refuse weed and sediment of 
the collecting jars, but to throw the whole into the vase. 
After a few hours it will settle down, and a lens will assist 
in the detection of whatever curiosities may swarm out 
of the refuse weed. Objects for the compound microscope 
may in this way be obtained and preserved in plenty. 
CHAPTER ITI. 
THE STOCK. 
I HAVE already indicated some of the varieties best suited 
for the cabinet, but will here briefly enumerate those 
which form the leading features of attraction, leaving the 
development of the collection to the perseverance of the 
student. The great division of Coleoptera will furnish by 
far the largest number of showy species, all of them inte- 
resting and lively creatures, many of them possessed of 
great beauty. The ravenous Dytiscus marginalis and 
dimidiatus, with their strong hooked claws, and brightly 
bronzed elytra; and the pretty, docile, and harmless 
Colymbetes, with its shining silver breast-plate, and jet 
black limbs and elytra, must take the first place among 
the beetles for beauty of form and colour. The large, 
