159 



[TAB. LXXXIIL] 



METHOD OF PRESERVING THE FLESHY FUNGI 

 {AGARICUS, BOLETUS, &c.) FOR THE HER- 

 BARIUM.— By Mr. F. J. Klotzsch. 



The importance of a Hortus Siccus to the Botanist, is too 

 universally acknowledged to render it necessary for me to 

 dwell upon that subject. Without it, almost no progress 

 can be made in systematic Botany. Hence it is we find 

 that the Fungi have been so much neglected as to be the 

 opprobrium of the science: for it has been considered 

 scarcely possible to preserve them in a such a manner as to 

 render them of service after they are committed to the 

 Hortus Siccus. In England, especially, the Herbaria are 

 lamentably deficient in this singular, varied, and interesting 

 tribe of vegetables; and the species that abound so much 

 in the Torrid Zone, are left by collectors to that state of decay 

 to which they so naturally, and almost proverbially, hasten. 



I am not without hope, then, that a method I have for 

 some time, and successfully, practised in Germany, may be 

 acceptable to the Botanists of this country, and be a means 

 of rendering this department of her Flora more complete 

 than is at present the case. 



A few years since, M. Ludensdorif made known to us a 

 plan for preparing the Fleshy Fungi ; namely, by boiling 

 them in mutton-fat, (which thus filled their pores and cells, 

 and penetrated the very substance,) and then covering them 

 with a coat of varnish : but neither did this preserve the colour 

 nor the form ; and the operation, it must be allowed, is by no 

 means an agreeable one, nor free from trouble: add to 

 which, they required a vast deal of space in the cabinet, par- 

 ticularly if placed in an advantageous and convenient point 

 of view. 



The method I have adopted, by which the Agarics and 

 Boleti may have their characters preserved and be fit for 

 examination in the Herbarium, is as follows : — 



