ORGANIZATION OF BOTANICAL MUSEUMS. 193 



1^36. It is essential that the corks be of good quality and free 

 from holes or fissures, as the sequel will explain. The bottle 

 also should be free from warps or flaws, and should have a 

 neat, sharply-rounded collar, as in Fig. 3. 



The preservative fluid that has alone proved suitable for 

 nearly all specimens is commercial alcohol of 93 % to 95 % 

 strength. Its advantages are many. It quickly hardens, and 

 therefore retains in position all plant parts that can readily be 

 permeated by it ; and this applies to most objects. It bleaches 

 uniformly, as a rule. Its cost is reasonable when purchased 

 by an institution, while it is a clean and harmless liquid to use 

 along with metal instruments. 



As already indicated, it rapidly discharges plant colors in 

 most instances, but there are some striking exceptions : thus, 

 the violet-blue color of the petals in some Ranunailaccae, 

 Boraginaceae, and Compositac is either retained in its original 

 intensity, or is only slightly discharged. So also with such 

 scarlets as that exhibited by the macrosporangial coat of Cycas 

 revoliUa. But no matter what the subsequent change may be, 

 the specimen, after being arranged in alcohol, should at once 

 be placed in direct sunlight to effect the discharge of chloro- 

 phyll and other coloring matters. 



Two pairs of long fine forceps are needed for dissection of 

 flower, fruit, and seed parts, or for displaying properly the 

 organs of cryptogams. Alike for dissection and for placing 

 of parts when the specimen has been dropped into alcohol, 

 two needles in long handles will prove useful. A pair of 

 rather strong scissors for neat removal of a specimen from a 

 plant, also fine-pointed scissors for dissection, are essential. 

 For flower, fruit, and seed sections a sharp razor is indis- 

 pensable, but for rougher purposes, a pocket-knife will suit. 

 For sections of hard fruits like those of palms, a fine rotary 

 or hand-saw should be employed, and the surface then polished. 



Not unfrequently, as will be pointed out later, it is desirable to 

 place two or three specimens alongside each other in a common 

 jar for comparison. Thus I have arranged, side by side, three 

 inflorescences of our native pickerel weed {Pontederia cordata) to 

 show its trimorphic condition. To retain the inflorescences in 



