ted with elegance
and beauty. This kind of gardening has, therefore, become of late
years one of the most fashionable, while at the same time one of the
most pleasant sources of domestic amusement.

An interesting companion to the Wardian Case has lately been presented
in the Aquatic Plant Case, or Parlour Aquarium, due to the ingenuity
of Mr Warington, and which has for its object, as its name indicates,
the cultivation of aquatic or water plants. It may be described as a
combination of the Wardian Case and the gold-fish globe, the object
being to illustrate the mutual dependence of animal and vegetable
life. Mr Warington has lately detailed his experiments. 'The small
gold-fish were placed in a glass-receiver of about twelve gallons'
capacity, having a cover of thin muslin stretched over a stout copper
wire, bent into a circle, placed over its mouth, so as to exclude as
much as possible the sooty dust of the London atmosphere, without, at
the same time, impeding the free passage of the atmospheric air. This
receiver was about half-filled with ordinary spring-water, and
supplied at the bottom with sand and mud, together with loose stones
of limestone tufa from Matlock, and of sandstone: these were arranged
so that the fish could get below.... A small plant of _Vallisneria
spiralis_ was introduced, its roots being inserted in the mud and
sand, and covered by one of the loose stones, so as to retain the
plant in its position.... The materials being thus arranged, all
appeared to go on well for a short time, until circumstances occurred
which indicated that another and very material agent was required to
perfect the adjustment.' The decaying leaves of the vallisneria
produced a slime which began to affect the fish injuriously: this it
was necessary to get quit of. Mr Warington introduced five or six
snails (_Limnea stagnalis_), 'which soon removed the nuisance, and
restored the fish to a healthy state; thus perfecting the balance
between the animal and vegetable inhabitants, and enabling both to
perform their functions with health and energy. So luxuriant was the
growth of the vallisneria under these circumstances, that by the
autumn the one solitary plant originally introduced had thrown out
very numerous offshoots and suckers, thus multiplying to the extent of
upwards of thirty-five strong plants, and these threw up their long
spiral flower-stems in all directions, so that at one time more than
forty blossoms were coun