94 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. X 



count of having an insufficient number of specimens. It is often 

 necessary to treat specimens with reagents or to dissect off certain 

 structures in order to make out some of the specific characters ; 

 in other words, to injure the specimen in order to find out what 

 it is. In the case of a new species the speciahst should have at 

 hand enough specimens to show, at least approximately, the 

 range of variation in specific characters, and plenty of material 

 for museums, for other specialists, and for his own future use. 



It goes without saying that all specimens should be labeled 

 properly; and it is much better to put the data in or on the tube 

 with the specimens than simply to give the latter a number. 



Collembola should not be mounted on card points, for the 

 integument is so delicate that they shrink badly. Shrunken 

 specimens can be restored to a semblance of their natural form 

 by the use of dilute potassium hydroxide, but are never so 

 satisfactory for study as specimens preserved in alcohol or 

 formaline. 



Alcohol of 80 or 85 per cent, is better than strong alcohol (95 

 per cent.), as the latter makes the insects brittle. 



Four per cent, formaline preserves certain colors that are not 

 permanent in alcohol. The advantages of formaline as a pre- 

 servative are well known. It economizes space and is inexpen- 

 sive. On a camping trip or a journey to the ends of the earth, 

 only a comparatively small amount of formaldehyde need be 

 carried, which may be diluted when necessary by mixing it with 

 twenty-four times its volume of water. 



THE LAND OF THE ROSE APPLE TREE. 



By R. p. Dow, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



One of the oldest words in the world, which has not passed 

 from land to land, changing its form while retaining its root, is 

 " jambos." For the jambos tree is confined to India, save where 

 it is shown in botanical gardens. Its fruit tastes a little like a 

 full-blown rose smells. In the earliest known time all tropical 

 India was known as the Land of the Rose Apple Tree. For an 



