DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING A MUSEUM OF FUNGI. 



The method of preserving the larger fungi, such as the Polyporei, has 

 changed somewhat in recent years frcm that formerly employed. In the 

 museums of Europe for the mcst part, as at Kew, Paris, and Upsala, the 

 specimens are glued down to sheets, somewhat after the same plan used in 

 making a herbarium of dried, flowering plants. While this method has ad- 

 vantages, such as compactness, it has disadvantages that more than offset the 

 advantages. It is evident that all that can he preserved of a large specimen 

 in this manner is a thin slice which often gives a very inadequate idea of the 

 species. In the modern museums, such as the Lloyd Museum at Cincinnati 

 and the New York Botanical Gardens, these specimens are preserved in boxes 

 in their natural condition, each specimen in a separate box. The boxes are 

 made in different sizes in order to accommodate the various specimens, but 

 the sizes run in sets so they can be piled together in compact piles without 

 regard to the different sizes of the boxes. In the Lloyd Museum the original 

 sizes of the boxes were based on the shelving. The following are the standard 

 sizes we use in our museum. The measurements are in millimeters, and the 

 last represents the height of the box with the cover on. 



Xo. 1/2. 70x64x22 mm. 



No. i. 70x64x44 mm. 



No. 2. 70 x 64 x 88 mm. 



No. 3. 70 x 128 x 88 mm. 



No. 4. 140 x 128 x 88 mm. 



No. 5. 140x128x176 mm. 



No. 6. 140x256x176 mm. 



We strongly advise those who wish to make a collection of fungi to adopt 

 a series cf boxes, the sizes running by units as the above, as then all the 

 various sizes can be piled compactly. The sizes that we have adopted take 

 care of almost any size or shape of fungus that we receive, and in practical 

 use we mid that the greater part of them arc put in boxes No. y 2 or No. i. 



Preservation 'of Specimens. 



Poisoning specimens. The principal trouble that many have in making col- 

 lections of fungi is that specimens are apt to be eaten by insects. This is very 

 discouraging, but we have learned now how to avoid it in a very simple manner. 

 In the old collections where specimens are pasted on sheets they have to 

 be poisoned with a solution of corrosive sublimate and alcohol, but this is 

 very objectionable frcm the fact that it changes materially the condition of 

 the specimens and they are not in their natural condition after going through 

 the poisoning process. It was formerly my custom when I received specimens 

 to submit them to the fumes of carbon bisulphide, which is fatal to insect 

 life, but I have found that while it may kill the insects in the specimens it 

 does not kill the chrysalis, and specimens submitted to the fumes may have 

 chrysalides which will hatch out and eventually destroy the specimen. I learned 

 from Mr. Romell of Stockholm a very simple process which is as inexpensive 

 as it is effectual for specimens that are preserved in boxes, but of course does 

 not apply to specimens pasted on sheets. Simply put in each box a liberal 

 quantity cf flake naphthalene. For boxes the size cf No. l / 2 and No. i a 

 teaspocnful, and for larger boxes a larger quantity in proportion. Flake 

 naphthalene does not affect the specimens at all, but it kills the insects, not 

 only those that may be in the plant, but those that develop afterwards. I 

 have recently gone through our private collection of some ten thousand speci- 

 mens or more and dumped into each box a sufficient quantity of this flake 

 naphthalene. I do not anticipate there will ever be any trouble in future with 

 insects in my collection. Flake naphthalene is comparatively inexpensive, and 

 two or three pounds will take care cf two or three hundred specimens. It 

 costs about fifteen cents per pcund. 



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