41 



CHAPTER X. 



COLLECTION AND PKESERVATION OF MOSSES. 



No plants are so easy to prepare for the herbarium as Mosses. 

 They easily part with any moisture which they have imbibed, 

 and if common care is used they are not liable to be spoiled 

 by damp or seriously injured by the depredation of insects. 

 Except in very wet weather, one or two changes of the drying- 

 paper are quite sufficient. In collecting rare or delicate species, 

 especially if they are in a good state of fruit, it is well to wrap 

 the specimens at once, when gathered, in soft paper, which 

 need not be opened till they are required for examination, 

 when the calyptra or more fugitive parts will be preserved, 

 which might otherwise be lost in the process of changing the 

 drying-papers. Where specimens are abundant, it is always 

 well to preserve some in their natural state, except the tufts 

 are unmanageable. A portion however should be carefully 

 disentangled, and thoroughly cleaned from any adherent soil, 

 to show the mode of ramification. Where the fruit is easily 

 destroyed by friction, it is well to keep some separate, in little 

 capsules, gummed to the sheets in which the specimens are 

 placed. It is in general convenient to glue the specimens from 

 different localities on separate pieces of paper, which should 

 either be of one fixed size or multiples of it ; and they can 



