88 THE PARLOR GARDENER. 



plants was not too great, people contented them- 

 selves with lodging them in the reservoir where 

 the water destined for watering was kept. But 

 when the Victoria regia arrived in Europe, the 

 leaves of which, unfolded upon the tranquil waters, 

 measured more than a yard in diameter, the bota- 

 nists perceived the propriety of lodging it and 

 other beautiful tropical aquatic plants of large 

 dimensions, conformably to their rank, in basins 

 of tepid water, within hothouses, which are, at 

 present, very numerous in Europe, and are desig- 

 nated under the name of aquariums. 



You understand, ladies, that this preamble is 

 not at all designed to pave the way to counselling 

 you to convert your parlor into a basin ; which, 

 by the help of a thermo-siphon, being kept at the 

 temperature of the waters of the River of the Ama- 

 zons, you might have the satisfaction of seeing 

 grow and bloom there the Victoria regia. I am 

 going to propose something less impracticable. 



House Aquarium. 



The house which you occupy is one into which 

 water is brought. You have a parlor on the 



