THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



277 



harvest quite over by the end of August, 

 and I have also known it not come in before 

 December ; it depends entirely upon a 

 certain amount of atmospheric heat and 

 moisture. A damp summer and stormy 

 August will produce the crop at the 

 beginning of September, but a dry autumn 

 without much rain till November, will delay 

 the Fungus-crop till Christmas." 



Every one who has collected Fungi 

 knows how rapidly many of them dissolve 

 into a nasty treacly liquid. The edible 

 mushroom is only fit for food a comparitively 

 few hours after it is gathered, and other 

 species edible or otherwise are equally or 

 even more rapid in changing. It is therefore 

 necessary in attempting to preserve them, 

 that whatever has to be done, be done at 

 once. To collect a large number and leave 

 them till next day to be attended to, will 

 only give you your labour for your trouble 

 —you will get no specimens. The first 

 thing to be done with fleshy Fungi is to get 

 from them the superfluous moisture. They 

 should be laid in a dry place, where there 

 is a current of dry air if possible, for 

 several hours, according to the size and 

 fleshiness of the specimen. When they 

 appear thoroughly dry they should be 

 removed, and placed between sheets of 

 botanical drying paper, with at first a very 

 slight pressure, gradually increased, exactly 

 as is done in drying botanical specimens, 

 except that the paper must be changed 

 much more frequently, especially at first. 

 If you are preparing a number of specimens 

 at one time, it will be quite a good plan 

 after you have got once through them, to be- 

 gin at once and change the papers, taking 

 special care that all you use shall be 

 thoroughly dry. If this is not done they 

 will mould or spoil. Mr. Smith recommends, 

 when the plants are half dry, to take them 

 out of the paper and put them in dry air, 

 or in a sunny place for a short time (the 

 length of time being determined by 



experience, and the nature of the species), 

 to part with more of their moisture." 



In collecting Fungi, as in everything else, 

 it will be necessary, if you wish to have any 

 knowledge of what you are doing, that you 

 take special care to have your specimens so 

 preserved that those parts on which the 

 determination of species depend can be 

 readily examined. The lepidopterist often 

 pulls off a refractory leg from his insect, 

 knowing it is not needed to make out the 

 name ; the collector of caddis-flies is as 

 careful of legs as wings, for he knows that 

 generic and specific characters are often in 

 these organs : so the fungologist must know 

 what parts of his specimen are needed for 

 its determination, and preserve those most 

 carefully. The connection between the gills 

 and the stem is of first importance; the 

 rings that are found on the stems of certain 

 species must be carefully preserved; and 

 when possible specimens of various stages 

 of growth are desirable. The spores of 

 Fungi must also be obtained and preserved 

 by those who wish to study them. Mr. 

 Smith recommends that for obtaining the 

 spores the specimens be placed in a small 

 empty phial, with a paper collar slipped 

 over the stalk, on which the spores are to be 

 deposited. This collar should be larger 

 than the head of the Fungus to be operated 

 on, a hole should be cut in the centre the 

 size of the stem, and then when placed in 

 the phial, the spores will fall with certainty 

 on the paper. To fix the spores on paper 

 Mr. Smith washes it with thin gum- 

 arabic, which he allows to get perfectly dry 

 before placing the spores upon it ; they are 

 then deposited on the gummed surface, and 

 breathing gently upon them will sufifice to 

 fix them. As the spores are needed for 

 microscopical examination, the size of the 

 paper on which they are thus gummed 

 should be made convenient for use in the 

 collector's microscope. 



Besides preserving the perfect specimeni 



