COLLECTION OF SPECIMENS 163 



Mounting. Owing to their small size, and to 

 the facility with which their original appearance 

 may be recovered, as already noticed, mosses may 

 be far more satisfactorily preserved than is pos- 

 sible with ordinary plants. The greater number 

 may be readily mounted on the ordinary glass 

 slips as microscopical slides; and not only do 

 these occupy but comparatively small storage 

 space, but the plants themselves will remain, 

 for all practical purposes, as fresh as when they 

 were gathered. I have specimens in my collec- 

 tion now that were thus put up twenty and more 

 years ago, and which have altered wonderfully 

 little in the meantime. The media generally 

 recommended for the mounting of mosses are 

 glycerine, glycerine jelly, Warrant's Solution, 

 and Deane's Gelatine; but, after a fairly long 

 acquaintance with them all, I unhesitatingly 

 prefer glycerine jelly, as giving the best all- 

 round results, and I shall therefore chiefly 

 confine myself to a description of the ordinary 

 process of mounting in this material, adding a 

 few words later on as to other media. 



The plant to be mounted must first be well 

 soaked in hot water, with a view both to reviving 

 it and to freeing it, as far as possible, from all 

 traces of earth and grit, and from the bubbles of 

 air that are so liable to get entangled among the 

 leaves, or in the empty capsules. Indeed, it is 

 not unfrequently advisable, especially when the 



