IN USE AT THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 241 
II. Methods. 
I. LABELLING SPECIMENS PRESERVED IN ALCOHOL 
OR FORMALIN. 
A difficulty which at first prevented the naming of the parts 
was the want of coloured pointers capable of being bent 
should the character of the specimen demand it, and which would 
moreover resist the action of the preserving medium. Thus 
copper wire, steel wire, and glass rods painted were tried with 
little success. In time the paint blistered and peeled off. I have 
now devised a method in which the colouring matter needed to 
make the pointer conspicuous is protected from the action of the 
preservative by being placed inside a fine capillary tube, The 
tubes are made by heating ordinary glass tubing of about j-inch 
bore, and when uniformly hot of a dull red colour at the point 
desired drawing it out to a fine capillary tube. This capillary 
tubing is broken into suitable lengths, and as required the tubes 
are filled with any colouring substance that may be considered 
effective and distinct upon the chosen background. 
The backgrounds commonly used are either black or white, 
and upon these I use vermilion-coloured pointers 
Ordinary moist colours mixed with melted gelatine are used to 
fill the tubes. The mixture, employed warm, flows up the tube 
for a certain length by capillarity. If pointers of a greater length 
are required the tubes are filled by means of a rubber pipette 
sucker fastened to one end of the tube by means of a clamp, or the 
sucker is held firmly around the tube with the finger and thumb 
of the left hand while with the right hand the air is expelled. 
22. sucker i is released the colour substance in which 
ssi 1 of the tube is steeped is drawn up and fills the tube. 
| Both: ‘the pointers and the labels in the case of ‘specimens 
pr ed in alcohol are attached with photoxylin : when the 
. tive is formalin they are fastened with the clear dilute 
ss gelatine. already given as a cement for mounting light specimens. 
~ in that medium. 
II. LABELLING DRY PREPARATIONS. 
In the naming of the parts of dry preparations, the pointers. 
used are the glass tubes already described, or pointers made of 
