t invests many aquatic vegetables will in consequence be
cleared up. The zoologist is perhaps even more indebted to the
invention. The habits, not only of the fishes, but of the mollusca,
can be accurately studied under natural conditions, and many important
facts of their history ascertained and illustrated. The water-beetles
and other aquatic insects will also come in for a share of attention.

In concluding his paper in the _Garden Companion_ (i. p. 7), Mr
Warington states, that he is at present attempting a similar
arrangement with a confined portion of sea-water, employing some of
the green sea-weeds as the vegetable members of the circle, and the
common winkle or whelk to represent the water-snails. In a Report of
the Yorkshire Naturalist's Club, November 5, 1851,[6] we observe it
stated, that Mr Charlesworth read an extract from a letter from a
gentleman in America, detailing some successful experiments on keeping
marine molluscs alive in sea-water for months; but our inquiries have
not been successful in eliciting any further information on the
subject.

Experiments of our own have led to the conclusion, that some families
of aquatic plants are altogether unsuitable for the Parlour
Aquarium--such as, potamogeton, chara, &c., which very soon
communicate a putrescent odour to the water in which they are grown,
rendering it highly disagreeable in a sitting-room.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] _Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society_, iii, 52.

[6] _Naturalist_, vol. i. 239.

A WEDDING DINNER.

The English are often reproached with love of good cheer, and
certainly if foreigners were to judge of us from the manner in which
we celebrate our Christmas, we cannot wonder at their supposing
'biftik' to be necessary to our happiness. But high feasting has not
in any age been confined to the English, and perhaps the following
account, translated from an old chronicle, of a wedding-dinner given
by the Milanese, in 1336, to our Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III.,
may prove not unamusing or unsuggestive.

Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, was the widower of Elizabeth of
Ulster, and his second wife, Zolante, was the sister of Giovanni
Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The latter nuptials were celebrated
at Milan with great pomp. The most illustrious personages were invited
from every part of Europe; tournaments, balls, and other diversions,
occupied the guests, who were all furnished with splendid apartments,
ti