[Q THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



wliite paper aud covered, so that the spore print may be used next 

 day to check any error before cooking. 



For the Herbarium 



The fleshy Agarics may be placed in alcohol but if the container 

 is much handled the specimen soon becomes mushy or crushed; 

 if, however, it is carefully mounted and fastened on a glass plate 

 and immersed in a stationary glass jar it may retain its shape a 

 long- time. The alcohol will dissolve the color and extract it. The 

 best way to make a herbarium of these plants is to. dry them on a 

 square piece of wire-netting suspended over a kerosene or other 

 flame. In this way the mushroom gradually dries without cooking 

 or scorching. The color may or may not change and this fact 

 itself is useful to distinguish between species. The dried specimens 

 are very fragile and should be transferred for a day to a moist at- 

 mosphere where they will absorb moisture enough to become pliant. 

 They can then be straightened or gently flattened but should not be 

 pressed. Placed in a box with a proper label and a handful of 

 naphthalene or moth balls they will last indefinitely. If beetles 

 attack them they must be fumigated in a closed box with carbon- 

 bisulphide; but if the naphthalene is constantly kept with the speci- 

 men the beetles seldom find their way thither. The use of boxes 

 of varying size is much to be preferred to the method of pressing 

 and mounting on sheets practiced by the older herbarium men. 

 In either case, if specimens are very valuable beetles can be kept 

 away with greater certainty by Peck's method of the use of strych- 

 nine. This is dissolved in warm water and sufficient alcohol added 

 to enable one to spread the mixture easily. 



Sulphate of strychnia y 8 oz. 



Warm water 5 oz. 



Alcohol about U oz. 



Xotes for the herbarium. Specimens dried and prepared as above 

 are of little value unless they were correctly identified when fresh 

 by a mycologist, or, in case they remain unidentified, they be ac- 

 companied by full notes of the characters in the fresh condition. 

 The taking of good notes is in itself a sign of a trained mycologist. 

 But amateurs can, by care and patience, sufficiently describe a plant 

 so that the specialist can identify it. It is advisable that they fol- 

 low an outline, of which many have been published. The better way 



