The common Florence Flasks, in which salad oil is imported, make very pretty and useful vessels for the culture of minute flowering plants and ferns, and for the preservation of the lowest forms of either terrestrial or aquatic vegetation. A row of these flasks may be suspended in a study window along a brass rod, each containing specimens of plants that would be inconspicuous in a general collection, though full of interest individually. The pretty wall-rose, the true maiden-hair, the adder's tongue, etc., may be thus grown. Some of the spleenworts, with lycopods and mosses, flourish in sandy peat carefully dropped into the flask; while in others, half filled with water* specimens of Riccia, Lemua, Nit ella, Conferva, and other aquatics, make quite a garden of curiosities, worthy at any time of a quiet and studious inspection. Each flask should be covered with a piece of oiled silk, kept round the mouth by means of a small India-rubber band, so that it can be removed instantly for the supply of air and water. The only matter of importance in the management of such a collection is to keep the sun off of it, or at least to allow only his faintest morning beams to shine upon it; for an exposure for an hour at midday may cause the destruction of the whole.

For raising seedling ferns, these flasks are admirable in the absence of other appliances. - Hibberd's Rustic Adornments.

A flask or bottle of clear glass with a wider mouth, and those having a flat bottom might also be experimented with to advantage.