324 Transactions. — Botany. 



treated by this process require a single change of drying- 

 papers only ; those with thick leaves rarely require more than 

 three changes ; so that time and labour are greatly reduced, 

 while the colour of the flowers is better preserved than by 

 any other process. It is, however, better adapted to her- 

 baceous than to woody specimens. The methylated spirit 

 might first be saturated with corrosive sublimate, when the 

 specimens would be poisoned without further trouble. 



Alg^, Musci, Chaeace^i, etc. 



Delicate aquatic plants such as the finer marine Algae re- 

 quire special treatment. A portion of the plant should be 

 removed and after careful washing floated in a bowl of fresh 

 water, when a suitable white paper may be placed underneath 

 and the specimen gently lifted out. A camel-hair pencil may 

 be used to arrange small branchlets while floating, and. 

 superfluous portions should be cut away with fine-pointed 

 scissors before the specimen receives the final touches. The 

 floated specimen should be placed on thick blotting-paper, and 

 a sheet of oiled paper laid between the specimen and the 

 superincumbent drying-paper to prevent adhesion. The 

 pressure required in drying these delicate plants is very small, 

 but they should receive their first change within two hours of 

 being placed in the press ; if changed quickly and frequently 

 they become dry in two or three days. The larger coarse 

 Algae should be washed in fresh water and pressed in the 

 usual way, oiled paper being placed immediately above the 

 gelatinous species. 



Full instructions for the preparation of Fungi and unicel- 

 lular Algae are outside the scope of this paper, but may be 

 found in any good work on the preparation of objects for the 

 microscope. 



The delicate species of Nitella may be treated in the same 

 manner as marine Algae. Most of the species of Chara are 

 strongly calcareous, aird should receive the same treatment as 

 ordinary flowering-plants ; they are, however, easily destroyed 

 by excess of pressure. 



Mosses are easily dried in the ordinary manner. They 

 require but few changes and little pressure. The finer kinds 

 of Hepaticae are remarkably delicate, and must be treated 

 carefully, as overpressed specimens are of no value. Thick 

 red blotting-paper is the best material for drying these delicate 

 plants. The coarser Hepaticae and liverworts may be dried 

 in the ordinary manner. The same process may be applied to 

 foliaceous lichens, but rupestral and saxicolous kinds and 

 many Fungi are best preserved by drying at an air-temperature 

 of from 80° to 90° Fahr., and mounting on small cards with a 

 fragment of the rock or bark on which they grow. 



