128 Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. 1, No. S 



Chrysemys marginata (Agassiz). Columbus and Cedar Point. 

 The species picta does not occur in central Ohio — at least west of 

 Licking Reservoir. One specimen has the normal three dorsal 

 plates broken up into six which alternate witii each other, three 

 being on either side of the median line. 



Clemmys guttatus (Sch.). Cokimbus and Licking Reservoir. 



Emydoidea blandingi Holb. Columbus and Sandusky. 



Terrapene Carolina (Linn.). Very numerous at Sugar Grove. 

 Found in sand on Cedar Point. 



Summary for Reptiles:— Families 8; genera 22; species 30. 



A PRESERVING BOX FOR PLANTS. 



EDO CliAASSEN. 



As the time for botanists has arrived wlien they will depart for 

 some time from their work at home and walk over fields and into 

 the forests to collect plants and flowers new to them, I have thought 

 it would be interesting and useful to describe a box in which they 

 may preserve for several days, the collected plants and keep them 

 from shriveling, particularly if the same are quite large, and exceed 

 in size the usual small collecting box. As I had one made to order 

 and know by experience the valuable service it did ine, I do not 

 hesitate to recommend it highly. It is well known that many 

 druggists buy their glycerine and castor oil in five gallon cans, for 

 which, wlien empty, they have no further use. The botanist, there- 

 fore, may go to such a druggist, procure two of the above cans, if 

 possible of heavy tin and with flat sides, have the tinsmith take otf 

 their upper parts and solder the cans togetlier, after having cut out 

 of each of them a rectangular piece as long and wide as necessary 

 to give room for a door and after having trimmed any inside edges. 

 The door is then made from the two pieces cut out, (or from a new 

 piece) with the addition of several strips of tin, so that it may over- 

 lap and close tightly, and of the necessary hinges and hasp to open 

 and fasten the door. One of the original wire handles of the cans is 

 fastened in a similar manner as before on the top of the box and the 

 preserving box is ready for use, as soon as it had received two coat- 

 ings of asphaltum varnish inside and two of paint outside. Any 

 vessel of of suitable size and containing water should tlien be put 

 into the box, which will furnish the moisture for the roots or the 

 lower ends of the plants and at the same time for the air suri'ound- 

 ing these. Tlie dimensions of the box in question can easily be 

 determined by the botanist himself, but for those not wishing to do 

 so, I may be allowed to add, that the length of the box should be 

 about twenty-flve inches, the original widtli of the cans remaining 

 unchanged. The door should commence at about three inches from 

 the bottom, reach up to two or two and one-half inclies from tlie top 

 and have a width of six or six and one-iialf inches. 



Cleveland, Ohio. 



