— io8— 



hoping that some of them may try it and find it as satisfactory as 

 the writer. 



In the first place, I invariably prepare my dry material for 

 examination by simply soaking it in a tumbler of cold water for a 

 sufficient length of time. The usual time required for examining 

 one moss is almost always sufficient to soak up the next victim. 

 The only time when a moment's boiling over a flame becomes 

 necessary is when spores interfere with the study of the peristome, 

 after the dissection of a recently ripe and still operculate capsule. 



In the second place, I work almost entirely with mounted 

 needle and small convex edged scalpel under the arm-supported 

 lens of a dissecting microscope, whether it be in removing leaves 

 from stems, for examination entire, or in making sections of 

 leaves, or of stems, or of capsules, or in searching for gameto- 

 phytes and sporophytes. I remove only the largest leaves, as of 

 Polytrichum, of some Mniums, etc., with simply scalpel and 

 tweezers. I suppose every one can work best by that method to 

 which he has become accustomed, and in which he has become 

 practiced, from the beginning, whether it involves the use of pith, 

 or simply of the thumb nail and razor. But I believe the method 

 I have suggested is, on the whole, the simplest, most certain and 

 most satisfactory, because most expeditious. May I tax the 

 patience of my readers with one illustration ? 



Suppose I have soaked up some plants of an Orthotrichum 

 which occurs around Winona on limestone boulders, for critical 

 study. I carefully select a plant as perfect as possible, i. e., with 

 leaves unbroken, and fresh, with a fully ripe capsule, but not so 

 old as to have a demoralized peristome, placing it on a glass slip 

 in as much water as will adhere to it. This slip is put on the dis- 

 secting stage, under the lens, to be cursorily examined. If earth, 

 sand or vegetable debris adhere to it, I endeavor with needle and 

 scalpel to float this superfluous material away from the specimen. 

 I may wash it thus, on the glass slip, through several waters. 

 When perfectly clean, it is ready for detailed dissection. I decide 

 to examine leaves, both entire and in cross-section, the capsule 

 wall, to determine whether it is cryptopore or phaneropore, and 

 the peristome. 



I remove several leaves from the base of my plant, carefully 

 cutting off short pieces of stem from below up, and pressing off 

 the lowest leaves with needle and scalpel. (In some cases I get 

 good results readily by scraping the leafy stem downward, and 



