New, Rare and Beautiful Plants, 
GROWN AND TOR SALE AT HIS COMMERCIAL GREENHOUSES, 
RICHMOND, 
Vol. 1 . — No. 6 . 
JUL 
Fig. 45. — Aquarium . 
AQUARIUMS. 
NE of the most pleasing and instructive ornaments about a home is a suc- 
cessfully managed fresh-water Aquarium, well filled with an appropriate 
selection of plant and animal life in healthy condition. But as very few 
people ever make a success of it, perhaps a short article devoted to their 
treatment may he of service to some of our readers. It is often said that 
an Aquarium will thrive better with neglect than care, (after being once 
properly started), which to a certain extent is correct; for the constant 
changing of water, plants and fish, only tends to weaken both and shorten 
their lives, in their strange and unnatural condition. 
Almost any kind of an open-top vessel can be utilized into an Aquarium, for 
plants will grow just as well in an old wash-tub as in a gilded iron-frame tank; the 
great point to be attained being pure water and a healthy condition of plant and 
animal life. In fact, some of the finest Aquariums we ever saw were only wooden 
frames with glass sides; but these are usually objectionable from the fact that they 
are so liable to leak, and soon decay enough to make them unsafe to stand in a house. 
The great demand for a durable and ornamental Aquarium, adapted to the conditions 
and requirements of the home, the office, the hall, and conservatory, has resulted in 
many improvements and patents, so that the manufacturers now offer at moderate 
prices very ornamental iron-frame Aquariums, with glass sides, which, considering 
their durability, are in the end the cheapest. 
The principles that govern it are simple and easy, if one only studies to obey the 
laws of nature, not science — for it is only equivalent to a well ventilated house. The 
laws of animal and vegetable life exist just the same in the water as on the surface 
