178 
OF THE HERBARIUM. 
the purpose of examining its contents, which might cause 
"indescribable confusion. 
Dried specimens of the Phanerogamia and Ferns may be 
laid on their separate papers at once without any further 
manipulation, with the exception of the smaller and more 
fragile species, which should be previously fastened on to a 
piece of paper by means of adhesive slips, passed across the 
stem, &c. Mosses and Hepaticse may be fixed to the paper 
by touching a portion of the tuft here and there with gum, 
not by smearing the whole under-surface, as beginners are 
apt to do * Some, at least, of the Mosses should be pre- 
served in paper bags, as the fragile organs of fructification, 
the calyptra and operculum particularly, are very apt to be 
rubbed off and lost, from their unavoidable collision with 
the surface of the wrapper, whenever it is moved. As 
regards the Lichens, which are generally attached to some 
rough surface, such as a piece of rock or wood, the student 
* I mast confess myself altogether opposed to fixing the specimens 
at all, except in rare instances, where in fact it is unavoidable, as 
with most of the Algae. Of course something must he done to secure 
the safety of the smaller plants, or they will he constantly shaken 
out of their places, broken, and lost. I prefer to fold in pieces of 
paper the very minute examples — as, for instance, many of the 
Hymenophyllaceous Ferns, or the tiny Myosurus minimus— gumming 
the lower surface of the packet to the half sheet of white paper. In 
this way three or four may be placed on a single half-sheet, without 
any danger of their rubbing against each other. The author himself 
supplies us with an argument in favour of this, mode of proceeding 
in the very next sentence to that which, has given rise to this note. 
Less minute specimens— such as the delicate masses of the aquatic 
Ranunculacese — may be kept in their place by passing a tolerably 
broad band of paper, not too tightly, across the whole— the band 
being adhesive at the two extremities only. The specimen can then 
be slipped in and out of its guard with the greatest ease, when re- 
quired for examination. My reason for recommending this plan is, 
that the smaller the plant and the more minute its structure, the 
more need is there to have it in one’s power to examine it by trans- 
mitted, as well as by reflected, light; and how is the former to be 
accomplished, if the specimen is permanently glued to an opaque 
object ? — Ed. 
