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



has been greatly admired, and few amateurs of 

 Aquaria, who have seen it, have failed to procure 

 immediately a few roots for their own tanks. 



Anacliaris alsinastrum is another plant whichj 

 if no longer to he termed exotic, is, at all events, of 

 very recent foreign extraction. It should find its 

 place in every Aquarium. It has been called the 

 New Water Weed, or, by some, Water Thyme, from 

 its slight resemblance to plants of that class, and its 

 history is somewhat interesting. It was unknown 

 in England so lately as 1842, when the late Dr. 

 George Johnston, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, noticed 

 it for the first time in a pond, at Dunse Castle, in 

 the month of July of that year. Specimens were 

 sent to the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, where it 

 grew far too abundantly, and the refuse, which was 

 from thence thrown into the Cam, has thriven with 

 such extraordinary luxuriance that it threatens to 

 form a serious impediment to the navigation of that 

 stream. Prom Kew Gardens it has, in like man- 

 ner, escaped into the Thames, where it is already 

 one of the most abundant and troublesome of the 

 water weeds ; while in some of our canals it posi- 

 tively threatens to put a stop to the navigation 

 entirely. In the Aquarium, however, it is easily 

 kept within bounds, and is exceedingly valuable, 



