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easily be carried to wet the sponge from time to time. Delicate specimens 
from rocks or earth should be wrapped separately in any old paper to prevent 
breaking or abrasion. 
Where to Collect. 
Go to some well wooded area if such is at hand and begin work as 
already suggested on the large foliose lichens of the trees. Do not go on a 
long tramp, but as soon as you are in the woods, collect the lichens that are 
growing all around. It is too common an error to start on a long tramp, and 
many a collector walks for miles and goes by the lichens on every side 
because he thinks he will find something better just ahead. The result is 
a long walk and few specimens. If woods are not at hand and rocks are, 
they will serve for a beginning but beginners always make bad work of chip- 
ping rocks. Do not carry home a cord of rocks: but get pieces just large 
enough so as to get the lichen wanted complete, or at least enough of it to 
show the border of the thallas on one side. In many areas, especially in the 
pineries, one may well begin with the earth lichens. They are there easy to 
find and collect, but often require a good deal of care at home. If so unfor- 
tunate as not to live near woods or rocks, lichens may still be found on old 
fences and on trees planted along roads and in yards, etc. In the woods, be 
sure to examine old logs and stumps, corticate and decorticate, sound and 
rotten, standing, erect and prostrate. In examining boulders and pebbles, 
look at all sizes; and on the larger ones expect different species near the 
ground from those growing at the top where there is less of moisture. As 
stated in a preceding paragraph, look out for different kinds of trees, rocks 
and earth. Uninhabited and undisturbed wooded regions are the best places 
in the world for lichens, but there is no place where they may not be found, 
for they occur even on the prairies and about the large cities. 
Aids at Home. 
We will suppose that the fir§t collection is made. It matters not what 
the species are for the first time, but they are very probably the most com- 
mon of lichens, just as they should be. Perhaps the specimens are small and 
fragmentary, but the collector will soon learn by experience that it pays to 
get good material, and if he is to exchange later on or send away for deter- 
mination, to get it in abundance. No warning will have much weight till he 
has run out of some rare material in exchange, or has frequently been told 
by one of more experience that his material sent is too, fragmentary for 
determination. But leaving this for the present, what is needed at home in 
order to work effectively? If possible, there should be a table permanently 
placed for work, On it should be a microscope, magnifying at least 550 
diameters, a good sharp razor for cutting sections of fruit and thalli, pith in 
which to cut the sections, a small bottle of water and another of potassium 
hydrate, slides and cover glasses, an eye-piece micrometer for measuring the 
size of spores, and some volume which contains descriptions of all the com- 
mon lichens. The sections are to be cut in the elder pith with a very sharp 
razor, and they must be thin enough so as to be more or less transparent 
under the microscope. These sections may be mounted directly in water, 
and in most instances no other solution is needed. However, if the sections 
