178 MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



the gelatine in the water until it swells, and then 

 melt the gelatine in the water in the manner 

 hefore described. Add five ounces (also by weight) 

 of honey, which has been heated to boiling 

 point ; boil the mixture, and then allow it to 

 cool. Add the white of one egg, and mix. Boil 

 again for twenty minutes ; add half an ounce of 

 rectified spirit in which fifteen drops of carbolic 

 acid or creosote have been mixed, and filter 

 before the fire. In many respects this medium 

 answers very well, but I have found that leaves 

 of a thin and delicate texture are much more 

 likely to curl up, when immersed in it, than they 

 are if glycerine jelly is used. Moreover, it tends 

 to get a much deeper colour with age, and thus 

 to lose some amount of transparency ; with high 

 powers, too, a distinctly granular consistency 

 is apparent. Its chief recommendation seems 

 to be that it is not so liable to degenerate as is 

 glycerine jelly; indeed, I have found that slides 

 mounted with it can be exposed to considerable 

 cold for some time before any bad results are 

 produced. 



Farrant's Solution, in which gum is one of the 

 chief constituents, has invariably, with me, given 

 unsatisfactory results, as the leaves of the plants 

 always curl up more or less under its influence. 

 This is disappointing, as, owing to the fact that 

 it is used cold, all the apparatus of hot- water 

 bath, etc., which glycerine jelly involves, can be 



