1884.] Botany. 1043 
marked varieties are described and figured with a fullness as to 
detail and coloring which leaves little to be desired. The fifty- 
three colored plates contain eleven hundred figures, most o 
which are magnified 500 times, relatively few being magnified 
375 and 250 times. The making of these plates alone involved 
an amount of labor for which botanists will certainly be very 
grateful to the industrious author. That the work has been 
largely a labor of love is evident from the fact that it is sold for 
five dollars. 
The following directions for collecting desmids (page x11) will 
show the author’s style, and may serve to incite some of the 
NaTura.ist’s young collectors to search for these beautiful and 
interesting plants : 
“The outfit need not consist of more than a nest of four or five 
length. Should a boat be needed it can usually be hired on the 
spot. After selecting what seems to be a good locality, drag the 
net a few feet among the grasses and mosses, allow the bulk of 
the water to drain through the muslin, and then empty the resi- 
due into one of the cans ; repeat this process as often as may be 
desirable. Ten or fifteen minutes after the cans have been filled, 
Most of the surface water may be poured off and the remainder 
transferred to a glass vial, where the solid contents will gradually 
sink and the superfluous water can be again poured off and the 
vessel filled up with deposits from other vials. In shallow places 
what is known as swamp-moss (Sphagnum), bladderwort (Utricu- 
laria), water-milfoil (Myriophyllum) or other finely cut-leaf water 
plants are likely to abound; these should be lifted in the hand 
and the water drained or squeezed from them into a tin can to 
be Subsequently treated as already stated. A few drops of car- 
bolic acid in each vial, just enough to make its presence percepti- 
le, will preserve the contents for months, and even years from 
deterioration ; the green coloring matter (ci/orophyll) may fade, 
but this, in the case of desmids, is of little importance; never- 
theless, when practicable, always examine the materials when 
fresh. When dried on paper for the herbarium the specimens - 
Can still, after being moistened with water, be microscopically 
examined, but not with the best results, since the drying up is 
ape to collapse or otherwise distort the cells. 
The collector will not know the value o 
been brought drop by drop under the lens of his microscope, an 
Cut of the entire mass he may discover nothing to reward his 
be expected prior to mee 
reward. His interest in the study will be greatly en 
keeps a record of it in sketches of what the microscope 
66 
VOL. XvIIt.—no, x, 
reveals. 
