COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION, ETC. 225 



notes on the fresh specimen. Specimens to be photographed 

 should be attended to at once, unless it is too late in the day, 

 when they should be set aside in an upright position, and if 

 necessary under a bell-jar, until the following day. As far as 

 possible good specimens should be selected for the photograph, 

 representing different stages of development, and one to show 

 the fruiting surface. Sometimes it will be necessary to make 

 more than one photograph to obtain all the stages. Also on 

 different days one is apt to obtain a specimen representing an im- 

 portant stage in development not represented before. The plants 

 should be arranged close together to economize space, but not usually 

 touching nor too crowded. They should be placed in their natural 

 position as far as possible, and means for support, if used, should be 

 hidden behind the plant. They should be so arranged as to show 

 individual as well as specific character and should be photographed if 

 possible natural size, or at least not on a plate smaller than 5x7 

 inches unless the plants are small ; while larger ones are better on 

 6x8 or larger. Some very small ones it may be necessary to 

 enlarge in order to show the character of the fruiting surface, and 

 even large specimens can sometimes have a portion of the hymenium 

 enlarged to good advantage if it is desirable to show the characters 

 clearly. The background should be selected to bring out the char- 

 acters strongly, and in the exposure and developing it is often neces- 

 sary to disregard the effect of the background in order to bring out 

 the detail of texture on the plant itself. The background should be 

 renewed as often as necessary to have it uniform and neat. There 

 is much more that might be said under this head, but there is not 

 space here. 



To Obtain Spore Prints. In many cases it is desirable to obtain 

 spores in a mass on paper in order to know the exact tint of color 

 produced by the species. Often the color of the spores can be satis- 

 factorily determined by an examination of them under the micro- 

 scope. One cannot always depend on the color of the lamellae since 

 a number of the species possess colored cystidia or spines in the 

 hymenium which disguise the color of the spores. The best way 

 to determine the color of the spores in mass is to catch them as 

 they fall from the fruiting surface on paper. For the ordinary 

 purpose of study and reference in the herbarium the spores caught 

 on unprepared paper, which later may be placed in the packet with 

 the specimen, will answer. This method has the advantage of 

 saving time, and also the danger of injury to the spores from 

 some of the fixatives on prepared paper is avoided. If for pur- 



