CHAPTER XXIV 



AQUARIA 



Their Construction and Management 



No one piece of nature-study apparatus is capable of 

 serving so many and so various uses as an aquarium. It 

 may be used wet or dry ; filled with water it becomes the 

 means of practical acquaintance with all kinds of aquatic 

 life, both plant and animal ; managed as a vivarium, or 

 terrarium, it makes a fine insect-breeding case, a fernery, 

 a place for a collection of living mosses, the home of frogs, 

 tree frogs, turtles, salamanders, snakes, slugs, and land 

 snails. With one end arranged for water and the other 

 for land, and filled with mosses and ferns, pitcher plants, 

 and sundews, it may be at once a paradise for all kinds of 

 things, both aquatic and terrestrial. Filled with earth, it 

 may be used to germinate seeds in. By planting them 

 against the glass and darkening with a black cloth we may 

 study *' root and all " in its natural environment, observe 

 the root systems of various plants, and make all sorts of 

 interesting experiments. If we wish, we may plant a hill 

 of potatoes ; and we must certainly plant against the glass 

 all sorts of seeds of our forest, fruit, and nut trees. 



Every schoolroom should have at least two good-sized 

 aquaria for general purposes, and then if each child could 

 have a little one, on his desk or in a window, for his own 

 use, there would be none too many. We now furnish books 

 in abundance, but here is a book of fascinating continued 



393 



