254 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



alcohol, and the trouble with corks in general, and advocated sealing in a 

 glass tube half filled with alcohol, or the alcohol could be entirely omitted 

 after the insect had been killed in it, and the specimen would be free and 

 easily studied. Specimens illustrating the method were exhibited. He 

 seals his tubes with a blow pipe, making a sharp flame, and in this way a 

 vial even three-quarters full of alcohol could be closed readily. 



He also spoke of 



A CHEAP SUBSTITUTE FOR CORK. 



Cork for lining insect boxes is expensive, and he has found that soft 

 pine, cut across the grain, formed a good and cheap substitute 



Mr Osborn said Dr. Packard had also advised sealing vials contain- 

 ing larv*. Where no alcohol was added it was of course necessary that 

 the specimens be perfectly hardened. The wood to be substituted for 

 cork must be very soft and even. 



Mr. Smith said it would be very difficult to get material so free from 

 resin that a paper covering would not be stained. 



Mr. Mann said strawboard and a frame covered with paper had been 

 suggested as substitutes for cork. 



Mr. Webster said corrugated paper was very convenient for some 

 purposes. 



Mr. Claypole said all forms of strawboard or paper failed for want of 

 elasticity in 'the material. Cork and wood are elastic and clasp the 

 material firmly. 



Mr. Smith said this was the objection to turf, which was otherwise a 

 very satisfactory material. 



Mr. Mann uses no lining of any kind in his boxes. He thought the 

 pita-wood, formerly imported by him about as good as anything, and 

 thought it could be brought in quite cheaply. 



Mr. Smith said that even pita had its hard streaks, and that while 

 generally excellent, it was not sufficiently uniform. On a small scale, for 

 study boxes, corn pith was not bad. 



Mr. Fletcher said the lower part of the stems of Typha latifolia is 

 still better ; but the compressed cork now on the market is sufficiently 

 cheap, and is excellent. . 



Mr. Ashmead said that in the Berlin Museum they often preserved 

 different stages of an insect in small tubes inclosed within a larger tube. 



