15 



his Arrangement of British Plants, this author gives us an improve- 

 ment on hi» original recipe, based on further experimentation, but 

 the materials employed are the same as before. He claims that by 

 his method *' fungi may be preserved pretty well." Since Dr. Wither- 

 ing's time various other solutions of chemicals, such as those of suU 

 phate of zinc, chloride of sodium, sulphite of sodium, salicylic 

 acid, etc., as well as various liquids other than alcohol, such as glyc- 

 erine, petroleum, benzine, etc., have been tried and recommended for 

 a like purpose, only to be finally abandoned as worthless. A good 

 liquid preservative of the higher fleshy fungi still remains a desider- 

 atum. Another method of preserving these plants is described in a 

 work* by Liidersdorf, whose plan, very briefly stated, is to slightly 

 dry the toadstool and then immerse it in melted mutton-suet at a 

 temperature of from 125^ to 130'^ F, After the tissues of the fungus 

 have been thoroughly permeated by the fat, the specimen when hard 

 is mounted on a pedestal and kept under a glass shade or in a case. 

 The author claims that *' fungi prepared in this manner preserve the 

 exact shape and color of the living individual*'; but Dr. Klotzsch 

 (Hooker's Botanical Miscellany, Vol. ii.) denies this statement in toto. 

 No better results, either, seem to have followed the plan of first im- 

 mersing the fungus in alcohol and then in "soluble glass" (silicate 

 of potash or soda). The specimen thus prepared becomes almost as 

 hard as stone and speedily loses its color, whatever be the care ex- 

 ercised by the operator. The only person who appears to have suc- 

 cessfully solved the problem of preserving fungi with the exact form 

 and color thai they possessed in a living state is Mr. J. English, a 

 naturalist at Epping, England. The specimens prepared by this 

 gentleman are said to preserve their original characteristics and nat- 

 ural size perfectly, and have received the approval of Dr. Hooker and 

 other distinguished botanists. As Mr. English prepares his speci- 

 mens for sale he has deemed it prudent to withhold the secret of his 

 method of operating, and all that is known about it is contained in a 

 short note by him in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of 

 Edinburgh, and in Avhich he merely states that the fungi are preserved 

 by wax i fig them. • 



However successful may be any mode, such as the foregoing, of 

 preparing fungi, it is obvious that specimens so preserved are fit only 

 for the purposes of museums or other establishments where a large - 

 amount of space is available for displaying them; and for this reason 

 the ordinary mycologist finds himself obliged to have recourse to the 

 simple method employed 'for other plants — that of drying them for the 

 herbarium. The most satisfactory mode of making good herbarium 

 specimens of the fleshy Agaricini and Bolcti is the oft-quoted one 

 pointed out by Lasch in Linnaea^ Vol. v., 1830, and by Klotzsch in 

 ^ooV^x\ Botanical Miscellany, Vol. ii., 1831. This method, in the 

 form left by its authors, yields very fair results in a goodly number of 

 cases, while in some it proves a total failure. After eight years of 

 experimerTtation, however, Herr G. Herpell, of St. Goar, has finally 



*Das Atiftrocknen der PJlanzen fiits Ilerharium und die Aufhewahrung der 

 Pihe nach einer Alethode^ wodtirch jenen ihre Far be, diese?t aussetdem auch the 

 Gestali erhalten wird. Berlin, 1827. 



