159 
[TAB. LXXXIIL] 
METHOD OF PRESERVING THE FLESHY FUNGI 
(AGARICUS, BOLETUS, &c) FOR THE HER- 
BARIUM.— Bv Mr. F. J. Krorzscu. 
THE importance of a Hortus Siccus to the Botanist, is too 
universally acknowledged to render it necessary for me to 
dwell upon that subject. Without it, almost no progress 
can be made in systematic Botany. Hence it is we find 
that the Fungi have been so much neglected as to be the 
opprobrium of the science: for it has been considered 
scarcely possible to preserve them in a such a manner as to 
render them of service after they are committed to the 
Hortus Siccus. In England, especially, the Herbaria are 
lamentably deficient in this singular, varied, and interesting 
tribe of vegetables; and the species that abound so much 
in the Torrid Zone, are left by collectors to that state of decay 
to which they so naturally, and almost proverbially, hasten. 
I am not without hope, then, that a method I have for 
some time, and successfully, practised in Germany, may be 
acceptable to the Botanists of this country, and be a means 
of rendering this department of her Flora more ee 
than is at present the case. 
A few years since, M. Ludensdorff made known a 
plan for preparing the Fleshy Fungi; namely, by boiling 
them in mutton-fat, (which thus filled their pores and cells, 
and penetrated the very substanee,) and then covering them 
` with a coat of varnish: but neither did this preserve the colour 
nor the form; and the operation, it must be allowed, is by no 
Means an agreeable one, nor free from trouble: add to 
which, they required a vast deal of space in the cabinet, par- 
ticularly if ponas in an advantageous and OES pee 
of view. 
The method I have adopted, by which the Apure and 
Boleti may have their characters preserved and be fit e 
examination in the Herbarium, is as follows:— : 
