OE, THE HOME-CULT USE OF FRESH- WATER PLANTS. 



preparing a "River Garden," or, in other words, a 

 fresh-water Aquarium. In the first place, care 

 should be taken that the paint and cement of the 

 glass tank (an article of room decoration now too 

 common to require description) should be perfectly 

 dry, and entirely free from any unpleasant smell, 

 which would be fatal to many of the animals, if not 

 even to the plants also. 



The layer of earth at the bottom of the tank, it 

 is to be observed, is used more as a kind of anchor- 

 age, to retain some of the plants in their places, 

 than as necessary to their growth ; for the water is to 

 water plants what the earth is to the terrestrial ones, 

 and from it they take their chief nourishment. It 

 is better, therefore, to use only cleanly washed river 

 sand, a slight disturbance of which will not render 

 the water turbid, as when other kinds of earth are 

 used. Some plants, however, such as the great 

 "Water-lily, are found to do better with a layer of 

 rich earth under the sand ; but plants of that size 

 are more suited to aquaria on a large scale in a con- 

 servatory, than to a small tank at a chamber window. 



In placing a few shells, or other objects on the 

 sand, as stays to the roots of plants that should 

 have a fixed position, care should be taken to select 

 such objects as would naturally be found in fresh- 



