IN USE AT THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 215 
LUTING FOR LIDS OF VESSELS— 
I. Permanent sealing, ... 8 ies es ane 242 
II. Firm sealing, ... hee oan ee ee ant 243 
III. Temporary sealing, .. nai 3 es oe 243 
BUILDING UP OF GLASS VESSELS, on ree ae vere 244 
INTRODUCTORY. 
It has been the practice in preparing specimens for the Museum 
of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, to endeavour to pre- 
serve as naturally as possible the form of the specimen, and to 
name, where such a course seemed to add to the educational 
value of the exhibit, the different organs and parts of the speci- 
men. The object has been to facilitate a comparison by students 
of the specimens exhibited, with the descriptions in text-books 
and lecture-notes. 
A specimen so prepared was exhibited at a meeting of the 
British Association in 1896, and again in 1901 at a meeting of 
the same Association some notes on the subject were submitted. 
Requests have since been received for fuller details; these and 
the frequent enquiries made by visitors to the Museum for 
information concerning the preservation of plants for exhibition 
in museums have prompted the following descriptions of the 
methods employed. 
PRESERVING. 
I. General. 
In the process of preserving, two stages are to be distinguished 
—first, killing the plant; second, its subsequent permanent 
preservation. The method adopted for the latter stage is com- 
monly made to accomplish the former also ; the preservative at 
the same time kills. The two operations may, however, be 
separate and distinct, but in practice, with some few exceptions, 
it is not found an advantage to separate the killing and preserving 
processes, provided always that the preservative kills fairly — 
quickly. 
Any method which inhibits the action of putrefactive organisms 
will, in the simplest sense, preserve plant-structures. A preserva- 
tive may, moreover, while preventing the grosser changes of 
