HoBKiRK : On Peeserving Mosses. 



57 



to render them perfectly useless ; with the smaller mosses such as 

 Seligeria, &c., this method must eventually destroy them. 



A far better method is the one I have long employed, which is a 

 slight modification of that in practice at the Kew Herbarium, British 

 Museum, and I believe all the large Herbaria. 



The specimens when gathered, instead of being left to dry loose in 

 the open air, should be dried in the same manner as flowering plants, 

 between sheets of bibulous paper and not squeezed too hard. In 

 most instances this is easy enough, as in many of the Hypnoid group, 

 where the plants merely require to bo laid flat between the sheets ; in 

 others however which grow in dense tufts as Didymodon, Tortula, 

 &c., or in cushions as Grimmia, before putting them in the press, I 

 take a sharp long-bladed knife, and cut the cushion or tuft into thin 

 sections right through its length ; in this manner a fair idea of the 

 habit of growth of the plant is conveyed, and it is thin enough to be 

 pressed without being crushed out of shape. In Dicranum and other 

 genera where the tufts are loosely coherent they may be separated into 

 little bundles for drying, which will equally preserve the habits of them. 



When the specimens are dried ready for the herbarium, take a 

 sheet (double) of foolscap or other convenient size, and of moderate 

 stoutness, and write the name of the genus and species (with a 

 reference number) either on the top or bottom left hand corner ; on 

 the inner (third) page, a number of small pockets may be gummed, 

 made of various sizes to suit the size of the specimen, and into each 

 pocket specimens from one locality only should be placed, and either 

 on the pocket itself, or immediately below or above it, write the 

 name of the gatherer, the locality, date, &c., or if the specimen have 

 been sent ready dried with a ticket along with it containing these 

 details, gum on the ticket instead. The sheet should contain only 

 one species, but if more specimens are obtained than would fill the 

 sheet, another half sheet of same size may be easily placed inside 

 with more pockets of specimens. Each species being thus placed 

 within a separate sheet, the sheets should then be all placed inside 

 a somewhat larger and stronger coloured sheet, with the name of the 

 genus written outside at a similar corner to the specific name of the 

 inside sheet. The sheets of genera may then be placed in their several 

 families, as shown in the Lond. Cat. of Brit. Mosses ; each family 

 being placed in a sheet which will entirely cover it up^ both ends and 

 sides, to keep out dust, &c., and tied round with tape, which is much 

 better than string, as it lies flat and does not cut. The name and 

 number of the family should then be written large (in same corner) 



