I02 



nOUNTING MOSSES. 



Cora H. Clarke. 



The answer to the question as to what is the best way to arrange mosses 

 depends somewhat on the purpose of the collection and how it is to be used- 



I am constantly needing to examine my mounts and compare new finds 

 with those I already have, and I could not manage with mosses tucked away 

 in envelopes or packets. I prefer an open-faced collection, and to attach the 

 pressed mosses to paper I always use a solution of gum tragacanth, being 

 so directed by that learned and kindly brj'-ologist, Thomas Potts James, to 

 whose generous help I owe so much. He recommended the use of gum 

 tragacanth, because it is so absolutely colorless, that it never shows on the 

 paper — the moss has the effect of being fixed, like a seaweed, by its own 

 gluten. One must buy the purest quality of gum tragacanth, and discard all 

 stained pieces. It takes very few pieces to make a fair sized bottle of the 

 prepared material, and even then the gum is of the consistency of jelly. I 

 spread it on the pressed moss as if I were buttering a piece of bread ; and 

 then lay the moss on the paper, wiping off all that spreads outside, plac- 

 ing under light pressure until dry. One must use care not to let any stray 

 grains of earth mix with the gum, for it will affix them as firmly to the paper 

 as it does the moss. Mr. James used a few drops of oil of lavender to pre- 

 vent the prepared gum tragacanth from molding, but I have not always found 

 it effective, and now I prepare first a saturated solution of boracic acid in 

 water, and then dissolve my gum in this solution, in consequence of a hint 

 derived from an article by Rodney True, on The Prevention of Mold on 

 Cigars, in Science, July i8, 1902; an article to which I am much indebted. 



Although I mount nearly all my mosses on herbarium paper, or paper 

 similar in weight and quality, I use paper of different sizes, and have six 

 different methods according to the purpose for which the collection is 

 intended. 



1. This method hardly deserves the name, it is only a sort of moss- 

 diary. When I go on a particularly prolific prowl, I gum scraps of all the 

 mosses I find onto a single sheet, giving date and locality, and calling it '* a 

 Record Sheet." I often do the same with sea-weeds. They do not make 

 herbarium specimens, but only a sort of collecting journal, and often con- 

 venient to refer to. 



2. For a handy and popular set, to sell at fairs or give to friends, I 

 select mosses with especially characteristic and contrasting forms, stiff and 

 graceful, dark and light, erect and trailing, and most especially those which 

 rejoice in popular names, like Broom-Moss, Four-tooth Moss, Twisting Cord 

 Moss, Urn Moss, Peat Moss, Brook Moss, Fern Moss, etc., and mounting a 

 nice specimen of each on a sheet of paper about 5x8 inches, tie these sheets 

 together in booklets of twenty or thirty leaves, each having a cover of gray 

 card-board. People who have never studied mosses are amazed at the num- 

 ber of different forms that can be found in their own woods. 



3. When making a set of the mosses of some particular town or village, 



