220 TASMANIAN HEPATIC^. 



DETERMINING SPECIES. ^ 



The proper genus being determined, it will be advisable, in 

 determining the species, to cut a small portion of the stem into 

 very small fragments, in a drop of water on a glass slip, with 

 a sharp knife. Cover the fragments with a thin glass cover, 

 and examine them on the stage of the microscope. Most of 

 the specific characters will then be distinctly seen as the frag- 

 ments lay detached. A l|-inch objective is the most generally 

 useful power, but some species are so minute that a -l-inch, or 

 even a ^-inch, objective will be found necessary. 



Unless the student carefully reads the description of each 

 species in the genus, he cannot hope to succeed in the correct 

 specific determination. 



The accompanying drawings of species will commend them- 

 selves to those persons desirous of making the acquaintance of 

 this beautifiil order of plants. They are copied, in most 

 instances, from the best woiks on the subject, and more would 

 have been inserted had we the required works in the Colony. 

 In nearly every drawing the plant is show^n in its natural size, 

 with magnified representations of the leaves, their setting, 

 stipules, &c. 



