429 
THE MEDITERRANAEN NATURALIST 
II. 
Botany. — All plants should be dried in paper 
as soon as possible after being gathered, care 
being taken that the flower, if possible, be pre- 
sent in each specimen, as well as leaves and roots. 
Attention is to be paid to the fact that leaves are 
not always similar on the same plant. Each kind 
of leaf ought then to be secured. On the double 
sheet of paper which contains a specimen, the 
date of discovery, the place, and if possible the 
hour when gathered, as well as the name of finder, 
are to be noted. Plants may be divided, for col- 
lecting purposes, into the following groups: Marine 
plants — (algae). Fresh-water plants — (fresh-water 
algae and phanerogams, he. flowering plants). Land 
plants — (flowering). Land plants— (flowerless). 
Among flowering land plants, those that are 
gathered on mountains should have it indicated 
on their paper, with the altitude, if known. Flo- 
werless plants include ferns, club foots, mare’s- 
tails, fungi (mushrooms), lichens, and algae. As 
the fructification in ferns is often carried on by 
special fronds, care should be taken that fronds, 
both fertile and sterile, are secured. It should be 
mentioned whether the fern is a low herb or tree- 
like in its proportions. Fungi may be preserved 
bottles or tin boxes. Marine algae easy enough to 
fix on paper, but if time is wanting for this they 
should be simply washed in fresh water and rol- 
led in a piece of paper when dry, with the usual 
indications. Only twigs of trees can usually be 
preserved by the traveller, but it should then be 
mentioned that they come from a tree of such 
size, height, &c., Roots of plants should accom- 
pany specimens as a rule, but in the case of bul- 
bous plants, the bulb is, of course, indispensable 
in all cases It may be found necessary to dry 
the plant independently of its bulb, but then some 
accurate means must be devised to secure easy 
identification of plant and bulb afterwards. Pa- 
rasitic plants are always of great interest. All 
plants, therefore, seen living on trunks of trees, 
or generally upon other plants, must be taken, ' 
their connection with other plants being careful- 
ly indicated. 
III. 
Animals. — Many specimens of animals are ex- 
tremely easy to secure and preserve for expedition 
to Europe, Others require a considerable amount 
of preparation. But generally speaking much 
time and trouble can be spared by having ready 
small casks or tin-cases, in which specimens can 
be stored in spirit — the only preparation required 
being to wash the specimens and to free them 
from dirt, mucosities, &c , before immersing them 
in alcohol Fishes are thus. very easily preserved, 
since they merely require washing and placing in 
alcohol. Birds require more care, and should be 
roughly stuffed before being packed. Small mam 
mals, reptiles, batrachians, «fec., map be treated in 
alcohol. At least the skeleton and skin of large 
mammals should be secured. All marine animals 
may be treated like fishes. Particular attention 
should be paid to molluscs. The shells are always 
valuable, but the animals contained in the shells 
should be procured also, if possible. It is sufficient 
to preserve the molluscs in bottles filled with 
alcohol. Shells should be washed and then packed 
in cotton or other soft substance, care being taken 
that both valves, in the case of bivalves, are well 
united by a thread. It is usual for Butterflies to 
place them in little triangles made of strong 
paper. They can thus easily be packed in boxes 
and kept there for a long time. The larvae or 
caterpillars should not be overlooked. They 
are preserved in alcohol. Small insects don : t 
usually require any special preparation. Echino- 
denns, star- fishes, all kinds of coral, polyps, me- 
dusae, worms, are all important and only require 
to be placed in spirit. The preparation for ver- 
tebrate animals /Taxidermy) is always done bet- 
ter on the spot, when time allows of it. Those 
i 
who vrish to undertake this task will do well to 
procure some practical manual of Taxidermy. It 
is useless, perhaps, to mention that all bottles, 
cases, <fcc., should be hermetically sealed and all 
due precautions taken against damp. Many 
specimens are often destroyed owing to neglect 
of these precautions. 
Notes and News. 
J \ recent number of the Bollettino del No- 
turalista contains an interesting account of 
the capture of a sea cow Pelaguis monachus 
in the vicinity of Cagliari. It was taken to 
v O 
