THE FERN PAEADISE. 



reverse it, fitting its knobs into a stand, we have 

 at once, if we fill it with water and introduce 

 some rocks and fish and aquatic plants, a minia- 

 ture aquarium, and one adapted for transformation 

 by the simplest of simple contrivances (page 189) 

 into a miniature fernery. We have merely, on 

 the upper side of the rockery required for the 

 comfort and convenience of the little fish we 

 propose to put into our bell-glass aquarium, to 

 have a hollow bed above water-level, into which 

 we can put some Fern soil. We can then plant a 

 Fern or Ferns in the little extemporized island, 

 and the situation will at once be found to be most 

 congenial both to the Ferns and to the fish. 



The methods, indeed, are numerous by which 

 Ferns may be brought into association with fish 

 in aquaria. The object must always be to copy 

 Nature as nearly as possible. The reversed bell- 

 glass represents in miniature, as we have seen, a 

 lake or pond, with an islet in its centre ; and in 

 this miniature structure the rocks may be builfc 

 up 011 its lower side so as to afford the holes and 

 corners in which, in a natural piece of water, fish 

 love to hide, whilst the upper side should be made 



190 



