LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 305 



have seen almost every hardy aquatic worth cultivating in a 

 canal a hiindi-ed yards long, and certainly the water abounded 

 with almost all kinds of fishes : but we take it that water 

 beyond a certain limit belongs not to the received notions of 

 aquariums. Under glass, where there is something like taste 

 in the construction, and we may see to the bottom and 

 witness the motion of the animals the water contains, there 

 is something more deserving of notice. For an example, we 

 will mention the aquariums at the Crystal Palace, where the 

 higher temperature enables the directors to cultivate some of 

 the most beautiful subjects, and keep alive many extraordinary 

 examples of natural history. The splendour of some of the 

 flowering water plants is far beyond anything we can grow 

 in the open air. But we may mention Yietche's, in the 

 King's Eoad, where most of the rare aquatics are cultivated 

 for sale. Those at Sion House, Kew, the Manchester Botanic 

 Gardens, and others, whi<;h were constructed for the pur- 

 pose of growing the Victoria Regia, are examples that have 

 been since followed by many. Aquariums on a small scale — 

 merely vessels of glass, in which plants, fishes, reptiles, 

 beetles, spiders, and other hving things are kept — have 

 become almost as fashionable as Wardian cases ; and one 

 dealer in the subjects for furnishing them — Brigdon, of the 

 Railway Arcade, London Bridge — actually keeps thousands of 

 plants and animals always on sale ; and we have seen, in his 

 glass cistern, turtles, lizards, fishes of all kinds, little ugly 

 monsters, that one hardly fancied were in creation, sporting 

 about as lively as if they were at home, and that, with some 

 of them, was thousands of miles off. 



The aquarium formed with glass sides should not be more 

 than twelve or fifteen inches from side to side, and two feet 

 deep, but from end to end may be any length that will fill a 

 window. Clean gravel and sand should cover the bottom ; 

 and a few shells may be added in artificial rock. The best 

 mode of inserting plants is to put them in shells, with proper 

 earth, and sink them to the bottom ; some, however, will 

 root in sand : and as some very interesting subjects among 

 the beetle tribe and others will destroy or worry fishes and 

 equally interesting animals, it is better to trust to those who 

 furnish aquariums, for a set of appropriate subjects, than to 

 pick up things at random. All fishes are interesting when 

 small, but come will not thrive ; and it has only been ex- 



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