kellerman: preserving type specimens 223 



factory. This consists in the use of shallow cardboard boxes 

 covered with binder's cloth and having a glass top. The box is 

 about a half inch deep and is filled with several layers of cotton. 

 The specimen is laid on the cotton, which presses it up against 

 the glass cover when the mount is closed. The cover is held in 

 place by long pins. Any fragments may be enclosed in small 

 pockets of transparent paper. A small piece of Japanese lens 

 paper placed under small or woolly portions of the plant will pre- 

 vent their becoming enmeshed in the cotton. The label is placed 

 under the glass at one corner as on regular herbarium sheets. 

 A r second label may be pasted on the lid so that the specimen 

 can be found at once when in a herbarium case, without pulling 

 out the box to see the label inside. Small pieces of camphor in 

 the corners of the box will effectually prevent the entrance of 

 insects. Mounted in this way the specimen is protected from 

 dust and the danger of breakage to which it is exposed if mounted 

 on a regular herbarium sheet. It may be examined without 

 handling, and when using a lens for close study it is scarcely 

 possible to detect the presence of the glass over the plant. At 

 the same time access to it is possible in case it is necessary to 

 study the reverse side of some part of the plant. Any original 

 labels may be placed inside the box, thereby preventing their loss 

 or separation from the specimen. 



Specimens which are too thick to be mounted as described 

 above may be placed in boxes from one to two inches thick. Such 

 specimens often cannot be mounted in the ordinary way without 

 danger of breakage and loss. Specimens with loose leaves may 

 be temporarily reconstructed in such boxes, whereas one would 

 hesitate to mount these leaves in a permanent manner. Minute 

 fragments of types which would inevitably crumble away if 

 mounted in the usual manner or enclosed in pockets may be placed 

 in smaller boxes of this kind, and these boxes arranged in trays 

 (with or without glass tops) the size of a herbarium sheet. 



