178 OF THE HERBARIUM. 



the purpose of examining its contents, which might cause 

 indescribable confusion. 



Dried specimens of the Phanerogamia and Ferns may be 

 laid on their separate papers at once without any further 

 manipulation, with the exception of the smaller and more 

 fragile species, which should be previously fastened on to a 

 piece of paper by means of adhesive slips, passed across the 

 stem, &c. Mosses and Hepaticae may be fixed to the paper 

 by touching a portion of the tuft here and there with gum,' 

 not by smearing the whole under-surface, as beginners are 

 apt to do.* Some, at least, of the Mosses should be pre- 

 served in paper bags, as the fragile organs of fructification, 

 the calyptra and operculum particularly, are very apt to be 

 rubbed off and lost, from their unavoidable collision with 

 the surface of the wrapper, whenever it is moved. As 

 regards the Lichens, which are generally attached to some 

 rough surface, such as a piece of rock or wood, the student 



* I must confess myself altogether opposed to fixing the specimens 

 at all, except in rare instances, where in fact it is unavoidable, as 

 with most of the Algse. Of course something must be done to secure 

 the safety of the smaller plants, or they will be constantly shaken 

 out of their places, broken, and lost. I prefer to fold in pieces of 

 paper the very minute examples — as, for instance, many of the 

 Hymenophyllaceous Ferns, or the tiny Myosurus minimus — gumming 

 the lower surface of the packet to the half sheet of white paper. In 

 this way three or four may be placed on a single half-sheet, without 

 any danger of their rubbing against each other. The author himself 

 supplies ns with an argument in favour of this mode of proceeding 

 in the very next sentence to that which has given rise to this note. 

 Less minute specimens — such as the delicate masses of the aquatic 

 Kanunculacese — may be kept in their place by passing a tolerably 

 broad band of paper, not too tightly, across the whole — the band 

 being adhesive at the two extremities only. The specimen can then 

 be slipped in and out of its guard with the greatest ease, when re-* 

 quired for examination. My reason for recommending this plan is, 

 that the smaller the plant and the more minute its structure, the 

 more need is there to have it in one's power to examine it by trans- 

 mitted, as well as by reflected, light ; and how is the former to be 

 accomplished, if the specimen is permanently glued to an opaque 

 object ? — Ed. 



