196 



HARDWICKE'S SCI E N CE-GO S S IP. 



and perfect slice from tlie middle of a tender Agaric 

 or Boletus ; for there is often a sort of articulation 

 at the point G, which causes the slice to fall in two. 

 As for preserving fungi in fluids, [ thnik it in all 



Fig:. 122. Section cut througli Agaricus. 



ways undesirable. It may more or less answer for 

 single or unique specimens, or for large museums, 

 where space is of no consequence ; but for all pur- 

 poses of constant reference and private study, any 

 process of this sort is worthless. Few persons, I 

 imagine, would care to have hundreds (or I might 

 say thousands) of tolerably large glass bottles of 

 fluids in their houses. It is essential that the 

 spores should be secured, as their colour and size is 

 very important. They may be preserved in various 

 ways : if coloured, they are best kept on white 

 paper, and if white, on black glazed paper, such as 

 is supplied to photographers; or they may be at once 

 deposited and kept on glass slides and covered, or 

 between thin sheets of mica, also such as photo- 

 graphers use. I prefer the spores free on paper. 



Fig. 123. 



as they can easily be transferred to glass for exami- 

 nation by breathing on a corner of a glass slide and 

 just touching it on to the dry spores ; thousands 

 will attach themselves to the glass, and, moreover, 

 the supply from one fungus appears to be perfectly 

 inexhaustible. To secure a good batch of spores, it 

 is not sufiicient to let the Agaric merely rest in the 

 position shown at H (fig. 123), for the spores will 

 not properly fall when this plan is adopted ; a far 

 better one is to cut a small hole, about the size of 

 the diameter of the stem of the fungus, in the 

 centre of the paper on which the spores are to be 

 deposited : slip the stem through the hole, carefully 

 draw up the paper collar, and support the fungus in 

 a small pot, glass, or dry iiliial, and placed under u 

 propagating-glass to keep the plant fresh, as shown 



li 



Fig. 124. 



Agaric placed to 



catch spores. 



in fig. 121. If it is wished to fix the spores, let the 

 paper be first washed with a thin solution of gum- 

 arabic, which must get perfectly dry : the spores 

 can now fall upon the dry gummed paper, and 

 after the deposition the gummed surface must be 

 breathed upon to moisten the gum, 

 and when it has dried for the second 

 time the spores will be fixed, and 

 not readily rubbed off. 



It is necessary to prepare the 

 woody specimens in a different 

 manner. They must first be per- 

 fectly dried before the fire, or in 

 the sun, and then a thin slice must 

 be sawn (or cut with a powerful 

 knife) out of the middle. This 

 slice may be poisoned, as described 

 hereafter, and mounted on the 

 herbarium sheets at once. If the 

 Polyporus is very thin, it may be 

 mounted in company with the slice, 

 but more than one specimen is 

 desirable, as it is indispensable to 

 have both surfaces handy for ex- 

 amination. If the specimens are very large, they are 

 best kept in wooden boxes, and labelled according 

 to the genera and sub-genera they contain; or they 

 may be kept in drawers, the drawers being divided 

 by partitions if large, and labelled outside. If boxes 

 are used, they should all be the same depth ; the 

 height and width may be doubled or halved, ac- 

 cording to the nature of the plants : the plan will 

 be better understood by reference to the diagram, 

 fig. 125. If this plan is adopted, there will be no 

 waste space, and the boxes will stand evenly upon a 

 sideboard or against a wall. 



Before the specimens are transferred to the 

 herbarium they may or not be poisoned, according 

 to the wish or convenience of the collector. Some 

 of my plants that have never been poisoned remain 

 perfectly uninjured, whilst others, which have been 

 treated with a strong solution of corrosive subli- 

 mate, have been devoured by larva;, &c., introduced, 

 I presume, since the plants were put away, A 

 solution of corrosive sublimate in pyroligneous 

 naphtha, carefully washed over the specimens, has 

 been recommended ; but the ordinary poison is oil 

 of turpentine, mixed with finely-powdered subli- 

 mate, well shaken before applied. If the specimens 

 are to be glued down, they should be mounted as 

 shown in figs. 121 and 122, and fixed with poisoned 

 gum tragacanth, so as to display all their characters; 

 but some botanists, and myself amongst the num- 

 ber, prefer to have the specimens free. For this 

 purpose I have envelopes gummed to the herbarium 

 sheets, and the specimens (including a small paper 

 containing the spores) are free within the envelopes. 

 If the spores arc free upon smaller papers they 

 cannot be poisoned. Some mites arc very fond of 



