306 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



perience that has taught which does : and it is better to leave 

 the choice of plants also to the dealers in these things. We 

 have seen, at the depot already mentioned, aquariums com- 

 pletely furnished ; small eels, bull-heads, flounders, gudgeons, 

 and loaches, moving about the bottom among the roots of the 

 plants, which were growing out of artificial rocks, shells, and 

 the sand itself, or swimming on the surface with their roots 

 descending almost to the bottom ; gold-fish, roach, and dace, 

 sporting about in the middle ; lizards of many colours, water- 

 spiders with bellies of burnished silver, and beetles, lying on 

 the surface, and anon descending to the bottom and re- 

 turning; the whole scene animated, and when the body o1 

 water is only twelve or fifteen inches through, they can be 

 seen well if they are on the opposite side. We need hardly 

 say that the choice of plants for these miniature structures is 

 very limited, because many very fine things grow too large. 

 It is obvious, too, that numerous small things, which are 

 interesting when they cannot get out of sight, would be lost 

 in larger aquariums out of doors : but as house-gardening in 

 Wardian cases is becoming fashionable, aquariums are made 

 to match them in all but the roof, and the water plants are 

 as interesting in their way in the latter as ferns and lycopods 

 are in the former. The only subject we have once more to 

 touch upon is the necessity of a constant supply of fresh 

 wator. In out of door works this may be by fountains, or 

 falls, or any other fanciful contrivance. Indoors, it is by a 

 tap with water laid on, or, by drawing off a portion by means 

 of a syphon, and filling up with the common water-pot, or 

 any other vessel ; and the suj)ply must be by river or rain- 

 water, for the water from a well, though much clearer, would 

 be fatal. 



Arbours. — There are so many ways of forming arbours, and 

 so much depends on the facilities at hand, that we must 

 describe a few, and leave the operator to choose that which 

 best accords with the surrounding circumstances. The most 

 complete are those made over a frame. The most simple 

 are formed with trees brought to meet overhead by tying 

 the branches together. The iron-workers have frames of all 

 sizes worked in wire, and we have only to grow proper 

 climbing subjects to cover them ; but, although it may not 

 be quite so durable, give us wood frames for choice. It is 

 useless to say much about size, because that is arbitrary. If 



