39° TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



be brought in to be dried and put through turpentine or 

 benzoline. What little loss of colour attaches to these is made 

 up by subsequent tinting ; indeed, most of them lose colour 

 by exposure to light, and, therefore, if they can be tinted 

 naturally they should be, but beware of bright yellow " painty " 

 lichen, and bright green " painty," or dark green dyed moss — 

 all are abominations to be avoided. 



Some grasses there are which dry and colour well, and, as 

 a rule, those which are the most useful are the thinnest or most 

 wiry in habit. The sheep's fescue, Festuca ovina ; several of 

 the brome grasses, Bromus sp. ; the wall and sea barleys, Hor- 

 deum murinum and marinum, and many other stiff kinds of 

 grasses dry without much shrivelling, and take colour well, 



The short wiry grasses which grow upon walls, and those 

 which carpet woods, upland slopes, or rocky districts (fescue and 

 " hair " grasses), are the most valuable, and should be collected 

 systematically ; they, with mosses, form the groundwork of 

 nearly every mounted group, and, when burned dry and yellow 

 and red by the heat of summer, will take colour readily, or 

 may be used as they are, to give variety and colour to what 

 would otherwise be a uniform green expanse of groundwork. 

 It will usually be found that broad-leaved grasses, sedges, etc., 

 do not dry, but shrivel and curl until they are entirely trans- 

 formed and quite unlike what they were in growth. It is, of 

 course, possible to iron such broad-leaved grasses and make 

 them passably correct, but, unless recurled, there is a stiffness 

 (and brittleness) about them not desirable, and such objects are 

 better modelled (see p. 370), although Carex panicea — "carna- 

 tion grass " — and Carex Jlacca, both found commonly in moist 

 situations, are fairly amenable to treatment. 



The colouring must be very delicately applied, and what- 

 ever oil-colour is used must be well thinned with the turpentine 

 and varnish (Formula 84), and the varnish, if at all in evidence, 



