BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCENTY, 
gardens, among which the Calcutta garden has taken the lead by 
distributing such important plants as tea, cinchona, potatoes and 
most Hnglish vegetables. There still remains a vast field for further 
progress, either by introducing exotic economical plants, or what 
I think ig still more important, by careful examination of the quali- 
ties of the vast number of Indian plants, and how these may be 
improved and turned to account by cultivation. 
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hart proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. 
Caxsteusen for his interesting lecture, and the meeting then ended. 
HINTS ON COLLECTING AND PRESERVING 
HYMENOPTERA. 
By Caprain C. T. Binenam, 
Deputy Conservator of Forests, Rangoon. 
Hymunoprnrsa.—Ants, bees, and wasps can be collected and pre- 
served in spirits: but somehow such specimens when set out and 
placed in the cabinet never look well. Ordinary methylated spirits, 
rectified spirits of wine, whisky, brandy, gin, or whatever alcoholic 
medium individual collectors fancy, all alter or cause the colour of 
delicately marked specimens to fade, render them brittle, and invari- 
ably clog the tufts of fine hair and the down which adorn so large a 
number of the species belonging to this order. Ants alone do not 
suffer so much, especially if good methylated spirit, diluted with 
about one-third of its quantity of distilled water, is used. 
Bees and wasps should be killed in an ordinary insect collecting 
bottle, containing cyanide of potassium made into a paste with plas- 
ter of Paris. <A killing bottle just as effective can be made with far 
less trouble in the following way :—Take an ordinary four or eight 
ounce wide-mouthed bottle, or for very large insects, a prune jar 
does very well, fit with a tight cork long enough to project well 
above the rith of the bottle and give a good hold to the fingers. 
Put a lump or two of eyanide of potassium at the bottom, and cover 
over this to the depth of an inch or an inch and a half with coarse 
dealwood saw-dust (the coarser the better), Lastly, wedge a piece 
of thin cardboard, pierced with large pin holes and cut down exactly 
to the size of the inside of the bottle, on the top of the saw-dust. 
In very hot dry weather it will be as well before putting in the card- 
board on the top to damp the saw-dust slightly. The advantages 
