i6o 



HA RD WI CKE'S S C1ENCE- G OSSIP. 



broader at the summit than the type, 

 capsule half as long as the sepals. 



Style notched, 



\ 



Fig. 10S. Leaf of Dro'sera Fig. 109. Leaf of Drosera 

 anglica. obovata. 



We give an engraving of the leaves, natural size, of 



both the type and variety ; this may help in its 



identification. 



F. 



MICROSCOPY, 



Diatomaceous Material. — Mr. Clark, the Se- 

 cretary of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, 

 announces to diatomists that the Society is now 

 enabled, by the kindness of the State Geological 

 Survey, to offer return exchanges of the Pacific Coast 

 diatomaceous deposits on receipt of any valuable 

 microscopical material. 



The Quekett Microscopical Club. — We have 

 received the latest issue of the Journal of this vigorous 

 society, containing a description by Mr. J. G. Waller, 

 of a new British sponge, of the genus Microcionia ; 

 a paper on "The New Autographic Process," by 

 Mr. A. Cottam ; an abstract contribution by M. M. 

 Hartog, B.Sc, on "The Investigation of Floral 

 Development"; and a " Record of the Proceedings 

 of the Meetings of the Club." 



A Wet Process of Mounting in balsam is well 

 described by Mr. Stokes, in the May number. I have 

 for some years used a similar method, and which for 

 large and whole insect preparations I prefer. It is diffi- 

 cult to set out all parts of an insect, and at once apply 

 balsam without again disarranging your work. I there- 

 fore proceed thus : — The object having been sufficiently 

 soaked in potass to soften it, and washed well in 

 distilled water and freed from dirt, &c, I place it for 

 a minute or two in alcohol, then lay it out on a piece 

 of glass in a little alcohol, cover with another piece, 

 press and tie with cotton, and throw into a bottle of 

 alcohol — the longer it stays here the less likely to 

 alter form, — take it out after a day or two, put into 



turpentine and again brush ; it may be then mounted 

 after a few minutes' soaking in the turpentine, but I 

 generally prefer to tie it up again and throw it into 

 turpentine for a few days. To mount, lay object on 

 slide on some balsam (liberally), and cover with thin 

 glass, which hold down lightly with clip of some kind; 

 boil, until a portion of the balsam around the cover, 

 taken on the end of a needle, is tolerably stiff. 

 There may be very many bubbles, but if they only 

 arise from vapour of turpentine, and the balsam is 

 not too hard, they will all go out in a few days. 

 The boiling need be for a very short time, and a little 

 practice will make perfect work. It is the simplest 

 method of balsaming I know of, much more easily 

 managed than damar. — An Old Mounter. 



Canada Balsam in India.— An experience of 

 twenty years enables me to give a satisfactory answer 

 to the inquiry of Ff. F. Blackett as to the heat- 

 resisting power of Canada balsam in India. I have 

 brought back with me many specimens, mounted in 

 that medium, which I took out with me twenty-five 

 years ago, and they are as perfect as ever they were. 

 My experience of mounted slides is as follows, 

 though it may possibly not accord with that of others. 

 Canada balsam stands well, and so (and I was 

 much surprised at the fact) does sealing-wax varnish 

 as a surrounding cement ; though much, no doubt, 

 depends upon the quality of the sealing-wax. The 

 black asphalt cement is apt to run in under the thin 

 glass. I have some specimens surrounded with this 

 material entirely spoilt, while a few have stood well. 

 All chemical preparations are spoiled by the climate. 

 — C. S. P. Parish. 



Plant-Crystals. — Mr. Hammond's paper, in 

 the June number of Science-Gossip is likely to 

 lead to valuable microscopical work. Now, micro- 

 scopists need no longer be advertising for good 

 materials for the preparation of interesting slides, for 

 they everywhere surround us, in our walks through 

 the green lanes and excursions to the conservatory, 

 and to the shops of the druggists. In the latter may 

 always be had guaiacum bark and quillaja, in both of 

 which the long crystal prisms exist in great abundance 

 and beauty ; while the short prismatic crystals are 

 very plentiful in most of such common plants as the 

 Leguminosce, and in the testa or seed-skin in the Elm, 

 Black Bryony, and Scarlet Pimpernel. All these 

 crystals are admirably fitted for experiments on the 

 polarization of light. The sarsaparilla of the drug- 

 gists affords true raphides ; but these do not polarize 

 light well, nor do the cystoliths or other sphrera- 

 phiclcs. All of them are figured either in Science- 

 Gossir, May, 1875, or in the Monthly Microscopical 

 Journal, December, 1873 ; anc ^ ** 1S understood 

 that Professor Lionel Beale will devote two plates to 

 all these interesting crystals in the forthcoming new 

 edition of his great work, entitled "How to Work 

 with the Microscope." — G. R. 



