— io8— 



hoping that some of them may try it and find it as satisfactory as 

 the writer. 



In the first place, I invariably prepare my dry material for 

 examination by simply soaking it in a tumbler of cold water for a 

 sufficient length of time. The usual time required for examining 

 one moss is almost always sufficient to soak up the next victim. 

 The only time when a moment's boiling over a flame becomes 

 necessary is when spores interfere with the study of the peristome, 

 after the dissection of a recently ripe and still operculate capsule. 

 In the second place, I work almost entirely with mounted 

 needle and small convex edged scalpel under the arm-supported 

 lens of a dissecting microscope, whether it be in removing leaves 

 from stems, for examination entire, or in making sections of leaves 

 or of stems, or of capsules, or in searching for gametophytes and 

 sporophytes. I remove only the largest leaves, as of Polytrichium, 

 of some Mniums, etc., with simply scalpel and tweezers. I sup- 

 pose everyone can work best by that method to which he has be- 

 come accustomed, and in which he has become practiced, from 

 the beginning, whether it involves the use of pith, or simply of the 

 thumb nail and razor. But 1 believe the method I have suggested 

 is, on the whole, the -impiest, most certain and most satisfactory, 

 because most expeditious. May I tax the patience of my readers 

 with one illustration? 



Suppose I have soakcti up some plants of an Orthotrichum 

 which occurs around Winona on limestone boulders, lor critical 

 study. I carefully select a plant as perfect as possible, /. c, with 

 leaves unbroken, and fresh, with a fully ripe capsule, but not so 

 old as to have a demoralized peristome, placing it on a glass slip 

 in as much water as will adhere to it. This slip is put on the dis- 

 secting stage, under the lens, to be cursorily examined. If earth, 

 sand or vegetable debris adhere to it, I endeavor with needle and 

 scalpel to float this superfluous material away from the specimen. 

 I may wash it thus, on the glass slip, through several waters. When 

 perfectly clean, it is ready for detailed dissection. I decide to ex- 

 amine leaves, both entire and in cross-section, the capsule wall to 

 determine whether it is cryptopore or phaneropore, and the peri- 

 stome. 



I remove several leaves from the base of my plant, carefully 

 cutting off short pieces of stem from below up, and pressing off 

 the lowest leaves with needle and scalpel. (In some cases I get 

 good results readily by scraping the leafy stem downward, and 



