The Capture, Preparation, and Preservation of Specimens 
is manufactured for the purpose of lining boxes. Turf corn- 
pressed into sheets about half an inch thick and covered with 
paper is used by many European collectors. Sheets of aloe-pith 
or of the wood of the yucca, half an inch thick, are used, and the 
pith of corn-stalks (Indian corn or maize) may 
also be employed, laid into the box and glued 
neatly to the bottom. The corn-pith should 
be cut into pieces about half an inch square 
and joined together neatly, covering it with 
thin white paper after the surface has been 
made quite even and true. Cork is, however, 
the best material, for, though more expensive 
than the other things named, it has greater 
power to hold the pins, and unless these are 
securely fixed and held in place great damage 
is sure to result. A loose specimen in a box 
will work incalculable damage. Boxes should 
be made of light, thoroughly seasoned wood, 
and should be very tight. They are some¬ 
times made so that specimens may be 
pinned both upon the top and the bottom, but this is not to be 
commended. The depth of the box should be sufficient to admit 
of the use of the longest insect-pin in use, and a depth between 
top and bottom of two and a quarter inches is therefore sufficient. 
Boxes are sometimes made with backs in imitation of books, and 
a collection arranged in 
such boxes presents an 
attractive external ap¬ 
pearance. A very good 
box is made for the 
United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture and 
for the Carnegie Muse¬ 
um in Pittsburgh (Fig 
68 ). This box is thir¬ 
teen inches long, nine 
inches wide, and three inches thick (external measurement). The 
depth between the bottom and the lid on the inside is two and 
one eighth inches. The ends and sides are dovetailed; the top 
and bottom are each made of two pieces of light stuff, about one 
49 
Fig. 68.—Insect-box for preservation of collections. 
Fig. 67. —Detail draw¬ 
ing of box, in which the 
tongue, £, is made of strips 
of zinc let into a groove 
and fastened as at n ; g, 
groove to catch tongue; 
5, 5, top and bottom; c , 
cork. 
