CHAPTER IV 



COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OP 

 SPECIMENS 



~D Y no means the least of the many attractions 

 *-* which the study of mosses and liverworts 

 offers to any one in search of a hohby, is the ease 

 with which plants may be revived for the purpose 

 of examination ; for it matters not how long they 

 may have been gathered, or how dry they have 

 become (and for their proper preservation the 

 drier they are made the better), a few minutes' 

 soaking in hot water (supplemented possibly, in 

 the case of old specimens, by boiling in a test 

 tube for as many seconds) will speedily bring 

 them back, for all practical purposes, to their 

 original freshness, though, needless to say, such 

 drastic treatment cannot renew the tide of life 

 within them. It is, indeed, wonderful to see the 

 effect which such a process will have on what, 

 at first sight, appears to be nothing more than a 

 piece of shrivelled vegetable growth; the small 

 green leaves, which but a moment before were 

 closely curled or wrinkled up, gradually unfold 

 and spread themselves out in the water, until they 

 have resumed their natural appearance, while the 



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