76 AUSTRALIAN BOTANY. 



EXAMINATION OR DISSECTION OE FLOWERS AND 



FRUITS. 



The folio-wing notes from Benthavis 'Flora Aztstraliensis' will 



be of value to the Botanical Student. 



' To examine or dissect flowers or fruits in dried specimens, it is 

 necessary to soften them. If the parts are very delicate, this is best 

 done by gradually moistening them in cold water ; in most cases, 

 steeping them in boiling water or in steam is much quicker. Very 

 hard fruits and seeds will require boiling to be able to dissect them 

 easily. 



J 



' For dissecting and examining flowers in the field, all that is 

 necessary is a penknife and a pocket lens or simple microscope, with 

 a stage holding a glass plate, upon which the flowers may be laid ; and 

 a pair of dissectors, one of which should be narrow and pointed, or a 

 mere point, like a needle, in a handle ; the other should have a 

 pointed blade, with a sharp edge, to make clean sections across the 

 ovary. A compound microscope is rarely necessary, except in crypto - 

 gamic botany and vegetable anatomy. For the simple microscope, 

 lenses of \, h, I, and i^ inches focus are sufficient. 



' To assist the student in determining or ascertaining the name of a 

 plant belonging to a flora, analytical tables should be prefixed to the 

 orders, genera, and species. These tables should be so constructed as 

 to contain, under each bracket, or equally indented, two (rarely three 

 or more) alternatives as nearly as possible contradictory or incom- 

 patible with each other. Each alternative referring to another bracket, 

 or having under it another pair of alternatives further indented. 



' The student having a plant to determine, will first take the general 

 table of natural orders, and examining his plant at each step to see 

 which alternative agrees with it, will be led on to the order to which 

 it belongs ; he will then compare it with the detailed character of the 

 order given in the text. If it agrees, he will follow the same course 

 with the table of the genera of that order, and again with the table of 

 species of the genus. But in each case, if he finds that his plant does 

 not agree with the detailed description of the genus or species to which 



