202 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [June 



which may be fairly well shown under a gfood dry lens. 

 The details, however, are seen better with an oil immer- 

 sion. Some of the hairs on this slide show the sickle fila- 

 ments deeply stained and devoid of any adhering- substance; 

 others have a small quantity of the g-ummy fluid held with- 

 in the hollow of the sickle, while the majority of the hairs 

 are tipped with large globules that could easily be mis- 

 taken for permanent knobs or suckers. 



The specimen also distinctly shows that the shafts of 

 the hairs fring-ing- the pulvillus do not spring- separately 

 from it, but each root or stem forks off near the base, 

 forming- two hairs. 



I had hoped that staining- would have rendered visible 

 the orifice from which the adhering- substance exudes, as 

 the opening should be larg-e, considering- the size of the 

 attached g-lobules, but no such orifice has been detected. 

 Judging-, however, from the way the viscid substance 

 seems in most cases to be held within the hollow of the 

 sickle, it appears possible that a slit may exist along- the 

 filament capable of expanding- and allowing- the substance 

 to exude freely. 



The foot in question has been subjected to no cleaning- 

 process. Any attempt at such would inevitably clear 

 away the g-lobules adhering- to the hairs, as is the case in 

 ordinary preparations. — Eliot Merlin. 



Preservation of Flowers. — The following^ is a very old 

 method of keeping- flowers without loss of color: Dry some 

 very fine, pure siliceous sand in the sun or oven ; then 

 take a wooden, tin-plate, or pasteboard box sufficiently 

 larg-e and deep, and place your flowers inside erect ; then 

 fill the box with sand until the last is about an inch above 

 the top of the flowers. The sand must be run in g-ently 

 so as not to break the flowers. Cover the box with paper 

 or perforated card board and place it in the sun-lig-ht, oven 

 or stove ; continuous heat g-ives the best results. After 

 two or three days the flowers will be very dry, but they 

 will have lost none of their natural brilliancy,— Journal of 

 Horticulture. 



