vi 



PREFACE. 



of animal and vegetable life, of rare sea-plants, of choice 

 zoophytes, of appropriate fish, of useful and ornamental mol- 

 lusca, etc., obtained from all parts of the world and culti- 

 vated there, is equally admirable ; the demand for handsome 

 Aquaeia being extensive, the supply at such an establishment 

 of everything contingent upon their prompt and recherche 

 production is proportionately copious and superior. 



And yet, regardless of facilities so ample and at all times 

 so available, many a family will take delight in construct- 

 ing, fitting up, stocking and maintaining, wholly or in part, an 

 Aqtjaeium for itself. To enable each, however humble or 

 however unlearned in the art, to indulge in this innocent en- 

 joyment and to precisely the extent it may feel inclined, this 

 work will be found, 1 think, exactly the desideratum. It is a 

 complete adaptation to American peculiarities of every species 

 of useful information upon the subject to be met with in the 

 elaborate volumes of European authority. It is a careful con- 

 centration of all the practical results of my own, by no means 

 limited, experience in the structure and management of Aqua- 

 eia and their constituents ; while* it embraces, at the same 

 time, much that is new and important, for which I have been 

 indebted to the erudition of esteemed friends and eminent 

 naturalists. To Mr. Charles F. Durant and Dr. John Torrey, 

 I have been particularly placed under profound obligations. 

 The suggestions of the former as to the locality of American 

 alg86 and zoophytes, and the advice of the latter in the more ~ 

 strictly botanic department of this treatise, have been invalu- 

 able. On the strength of such able assistance, coupled with 

 an honest conviction that I have withheld nothing of the 

 knowledge in the premises with which, in my daily intimacy 

 with the " Ocean and River Gardens" at the Museum, I must 

 have possessed myself, this brochure must chiefly rely for a 

 favorable reception at the hands of the public. That it will 

 not fail for want of earnestness in the subject, or a sincere 

 desire to communicate that feeling to others, is, at any rate, 

 the complacent impression of its author, 



Heney D. Butlee. 



Barnum's American Museum, 



N&w York, June 1, 1858. 



