386 SELECTED NOTES FROM 



green backs thickly and coarsely punctured, clothed with upright, 

 soft, grey hairs, make beautiful objects for the microscope. 



E. E. Jarrett. 



Ditto. — The Chrysididce are indeed among the most beautiful 

 of our insects. They are parasitic upon the insects, mostly affect- 

 ing the larvae of solitary Hymknoptera, among which the well- 

 known Sand-fly {Oolynerus ?) is a frequent victim. This insect is 

 wonderfully persevering in its attempts to deposit its eggs. The 

 sting Hke ovipositor is capable of inflicting a smart prick when the 

 insect is moved to anger. J. H. Wilson. 



Some Additional Remarks on Finishing Slides.* 

 I am very much averse to making mounts conspicuous by 

 ringing them, which I think white varnish does without in any way 

 adding to their strength. It seems quite unnecessary to ring a 

 balsam mount, which, if made of fairly colourless balsam, looks 

 very nice, if carefully done, without any cleaning off". It is only 

 balsam which has been unduly heated and dried (before making 

 up with xylol or other solvent), which cracks off, and such mounts 

 are unpleasantly yellow, not to say brown. The balsam I have 

 always used looks quite colourless on the mount. 



For mounts in fluids where it is absolutely necessary to put a 

 ring to prevent the fluid escaping, I much prefer plain gold-size, 

 which looks well, is transparent like the mount, and never cracks. 

 I generally go over rings of gold-size three times. J. Gifford. 



On reading the remarks on finishing slides, I at once asked, 

 " Why ring balsam slides at all ? " To add black, white, or black 

 and white, or coloured rings to such a slide as Fig. 2, is as useless 

 as "to gild refined gold or paint the lily." Nor do I think that in 

 a climate like ours such ringing adds anything to the security of 

 a balsam mount. The superfluous balsam would serve nearly 

 the same purpose as a ring of a different material, and, unless 

 excessive in quantity or very uneven, is surely no dis-sight. It 

 may be. however, that balsam slides in :i hot climate require ringing 

 with some substance not so easily affected by heat. A friend of 

 mine returning from the ^Antipodes found on reaching England 



* For earlier notes on this subject, see this Journal for 1894, p. 102, etc. 



