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wood immediately beneath the thin bark. The channels are very solidly 

 packed in places with a fine and hard frass. Their general direction ig 

 lengthwise of the branch, but they sometimes wind around it, or rarely turn 

 backward at an acute angle. At intervals, in the sticks are seen small deep 

 holes penetrating obliquely downward or upward into the hard wood towards 

 the heart of the branch. These are narrower than the outer superficial 

 feeding tunnels, but are still flattened, and doubtless are the cells where 

 the borers undergo the pupal change to the adult state. The bark being 

 removed shows the tunnels to extensively cover the outer surface of the 

 sticks, indicating that these borers are active ones and capable of doing 

 much injury. 



" The only remedy for such borers in living trees is to search for in- 

 fested branches, detect the tunnels before they become extensive, and 

 kill the grubs by using a probe of wire or other material. Probing is 

 simple in this case because the borers work just beneath the bark until 

 ready to pupate." 



HINTS FOR COLLECTING AND DRYING 

 PLANTS. 



As many correspondents are good enough to send specimens of plants 

 Tequired in the Herbarium, and others forward flowers to be named, it is 

 important to point out the best way of drying plants for both these pur- 

 poses. Flowers or seed vessels alone are worthless, they should always 

 be gathered attached to twigs with leaves, and should be as large as will 

 conveniently go between the drying papers. 



The following hints were issued by a Committee appointed by the 

 Royal Society and the British Association for the purpose of repotting 

 on the fauna and flora of the West Indies : — 



" In preserving plants for permanent collections, the object is to pre- 

 pare specimens in such a manner that they may be thoroughly dried, 

 the colours as far as possible retained, and such a degree of pressure 

 given that they do not curl up in drying. For this purpose a quantity 

 of paper is necessary, brown or stout grev, moderately absorbent, of 

 ordinary demy size (17 inches by 11) when folded. 



"Two boards (or better stout frames of wire grating) are requisite, 

 of the size of the paper, one for the top. the other for the bottom of 

 each mass of papers. Pieces of mill-board placed between the papers, 

 if the specimens are numerous or particularly thick or woody, are very 

 useful. For pressure nothing is belter than a heavy weight on the top- 

 most board, or, while travelling, two leathern straps and buckles to bind 

 the boards and papers transversely. Thus provided, gather your 

 specimens — if small, root and stem ; if large, cut off portions of the 

 branches, a foot or rather more in length, always selecting those in 

 flower and in a more or less advanced state of fruit. Long, slender 

 plants, as grasses, sedges, and many ferns, may be doubled once or twice. 

 Place them, before they wither, side by side, but never one upon the 

 other on the same sheet, taking care that the thick parts of the speci- 

 mens are, as far as possible, distributed to different parts of the sheet, 

 and lay over the specimens one, two, three, or more sheets of paper, 

 according to its thickness or the thickness of your plants ; and so on, 

 layer above layer of paper and specimens, subjecting them then to pres- 



