OR, THE HOME-CULTURE OF FRESH-WATER PLANTS. 
preparing a “ River Garden,’’ or, in other words, a 
fresh-water Aquarium. In the first place, care 
should he taken that the paint and cement of the 
glass tank (an article of room decoration now too 
common to require description) should be perfectly 
dry, and entirely free from any unpleasant smell, 
which would be fatal to many of the animals, if not 
even to the plants also. 
The layer of earth at the bottom of the tank, it 
is to be observed, is used more as a kind of anchor¬ 
age, to retain some of the plants in their places, 
than as necessary to their growth ; for the water is to 
water plants what the earth is to the terrestrial ones, 
and from it they take their chief nourishment. It 
is better, therefore, to use only cleanly washed river 
sand, a slight disturbance of which will not render 
the water turbid, as when other kinds of earth are 
used. Some plants, however, such as the great 
Water-lily, are found to do better with a layer of 
rich earth under the sand; but plants of that size 
are more suited to aquaria on a large scale in a con¬ 
servatory, than to a small tank at a chamber window. 
In placing a few shells, or other objects on the 
sand, as stays to the roots of plants that should 
have a fixed position, care should be taken to select 
such objects as would naturally be found in fresh- 
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