The Parlour Aquarium affords valuable, we might say invaluable, facilities to the naturalist in the prosecution of his researches. The botanist can now conveniently watch the development of aquatic plants under conditions _not_ unnatural, throughout the entire period of their existence, from their germination to the production of flowers and the perfection of seeds; and we are in hopes that much of the obscurity that 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.