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—Mr. Shirley Hibberd says that in a large aquarium now in his possession he has never introduced an aquatic plant of any description, and has found, as the saying is, "their room better than their company." He used large blocks of coke for rockwork, which, in course of time, became covered with a microscopic green vegetation, which he has found quite a sufficient oxygen generator. His aquarium was placed in a well-lighted hall, but he found that an excess of light caused a too plentiful supply of the vegetation, therefore he drew down the blind, and it has since kept within bounds, the amount of light regulating the amount of vegetation.

—It may not be generally known that there is no fern so suitable to a room and so easily managed as the Killarney fern (Trichomanes radicans), formerly considered so difficult to propagate, and it may not be altogether uninteresting to some of your readers to hear of an easy way to have such an ornamental favourite growing even in their bedrooms. My plan has been to plant the fern in a suitable mixture of fibrous bog-mould and sand (E) on potsherd broken very small, with thorough drainage in an ornamental pottery vase. Instead, however, of filling the whole vase with soil, I leave a margin of two inches or so between the soil and the inside of the vase.

This margin should be filled up all round and to the full depth of the vase with moss, cocoa-nut fibre, and broken potsherds or porous stone (M). The glass used should cover only the fern and the soil immediately round its roots, and need seldom be moved, all necessary moisture being supplied through the moss, &c., which should be kept constantly wet. Todea pellucida flourishes under the same treatment, and is equally handsome. I subjoin a sketch of a vase such as I have used.—

—The cultivation of mosses may be effected by lifting with a little care, towards the end of the season, a good tuft of the species it is desired to grow, and putting in a medium sized flower-pot. A greater proportion of the drainage should be given than for other plants, and the tuft should be placed in immediate connection with such material as most nearly resembles that on which the moss grows naturally. If a trial be made of such as grow on rocks, shores, or branches of trees, and some of these succeed very well, they should be for a time secured to these by a piece of string or some other contrivance. Those which like moisture, such as Bartramia fontana, Hypnum cordifolium, and Dicranum squarrosum, should have the pots placed in saucers filled constantly with water, by which means they are supplied regularly with moisture. A cold frame or shaded shelf of a cool greenhouse does very well for them to stand in while in a growing state, and at this season should each day have a watering with a fine-rosed can, regulating the supply according to the degree of moisture in the surrounding atmosphere. During summer, which is a period of repose to most species, and when they are cast into the shade by the more brilliant tints of flowering plants, the pots may be placed under any shaded wall, taking the weather as it comes. The only precaution necessary at this time is to cover the assemblage of pots with some garden netting to prevent the birds picking up the tufts, which they are very ready to do in search of insects and worms.—Robert M. Stark.

—Any vessel that will hold water may be converted into an aquarium. Opaque vessels have many disadvantages, and something made of glass is preferred. The most ready and economic glass vessels are hand-glasses or propagating glasses, such as are employed by gardeners. These can be had of various sizes, and when inverted, with the mouth upwards, may be placed on a stand of turned wood, which forms a base or pedestal, and may now be purchased often at the same shop as the propagating glass. There is no difficulty in obtaining such glasses in almost any locality in London, and probably in the majority of our large towns. Having got your glass home, cover the bottom for an inch or two in depth, according to its size, with clean river sand. This is the soil required for your plants, that is, if your plants are such as require soil at all. Set your plants, cover the sand all over with a layer of small pebbles for another inch in depth, and then add the water, pipe water, cistern water, river water, rain water, or, if it must be, pump water. The latter is least to be recommended. Add the water gently. Let it trickle down the side of the vessel so as not to disturb the soil at the bottom, and at the same time become aerated. The glass being filled as high as you desire, let it rest until your plants are settled and promise growth, when you may commence stocking it with animal life. What plants? what animals? We will study to answer on a future occasion.