OB, THE HOME-CULTURE OF FRESH-WATER PLANTS. 



lakes, are best. I have recently seen some very 

 handsome pieces, brought from Loch Erne, which 

 are of a beautifully mottled grey tone, that has a 

 charmingly cool and natural effect in an Aquarium. 



If it be intended, in addition to the purely 

 aquatic plants, to add a few of those which, with- 

 out growing in the water, love to linger on its mar- 

 gin, a plan which I strongly recommend, then a 

 portion of the rockwork must be made to ascend 

 above the surface, as shown in the circular Aqua- 

 rium (Plate I.), in which two pieces of the rockery 

 are made to project above the water, each contrived 

 with cavities sufficiently deep to contain a supply 

 of earth for a small group of plants. 



The Aquarium represented in that Plate is one 

 of the simplest and cheapest kind, being formed by 

 the inversion of a common bell-glass, which is 

 mounted upon a turned wooden stand of the simplest 

 design. One of the projecting pieces of rockwork, 

 the highest and driest, has been planted with a 

 small root of Pern, belonging to the more dwarf 

 and delicately foliaged kinds. The other has been 

 made to form the receptacle for a fine tuft of Porget- 

 me-not a plant which never flourishes so luxu- 

 riantly as when its roots find their way into 

 water. Its flowers, in such a position, attain nearly 



