90 THE PARLOR GARDENER. 



Fish that ought to be put in it. 



Before speaking to you of the plants that the 

 water of your aquarium can nourish, and of the 

 culture of these plants, I will answer an objection 

 which naturally presents itself here : the water 

 of your basin, you will say, although renewed by 

 a continued stream, cannot fail to be corrupted, 

 and to fill your house with a marshy smell, which 

 will be as disagreeable as unhealthy. 



Here is another mistake ; and so you will ac- 

 knowledge, if you permit me to give you some 

 words of explanation on the Subject of stagnant 

 water. When water exhales an odor of putrid- 

 ity, it is not the water itself that is corrupted ; it 

 is the animal matter which it holds in suspension ; 

 it is, above all, the thousands of animalcula 

 which are born, live, multiply, and die there 

 with a prodigious rapidity, and of which water, 

 to all appearance most pure, contains hordes 

 without number. But, if you place in the aqua- 

 rium living fish, they will nourish themselves 

 with these animalcula as well as with the animal 

 and vegetable matter held in suspension in the 



