XXVI 
RULES FOR PRESERVING 
and patience are necessary. If two or three growing in a close group are pressed together, put 
little hits of muslin between them, and do not remove these till the process of pressing is com- 
pleted. Some people prefer preserving it in a bottle with spirits of wine and water (one part 
spirit, two water). This plan has the advantage of not destroying its shape, but the bottle is 
inconvenient in the herbarium. 
Leathesia tuheriformis (Fig. 54), and the Rivularias (Plate LXXV.), require gradual 
pressing also. 
Certain incrusting plants, as Ralfsia verrucosa (Fig. 60), Cruoria pellita (Fig. 227), 
(now Petrocelis cruenta), Hildenhrantia rubra (Fig. 161), &c., cannot be displayed on paper. 
Morsels of them may be kept in little paper cases fastened in the herbarium, but dissected 
portions of each should be mounted in microscopic slides for observation of the structure. 
The lumpy Melobesias (Figs. 156-159) can only be kept in boxes. 
HOW TO MAKE SECTIONS OF ALG^ FOR 
MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION. 
For making sections or durchsclinitts it is necessary to have a small working microscope, 
a few glass slides and thin cell-covers, and a delicately fine knife. 
An excellent microscope of the proper sort is to be had for a few shillings; and if the 
knife it contains be not sufficiently fine, an infant’s gum lancet, well sharpened, answers the 
purpose. 
The little instrument has, of course, a stem on which the eye-glass runs up and down; 
and this being fastened to the wood-work of the box, can be shut in or turned out at will. 
When turned out, the box itself forms a small stage or platform to work upon; the student 
looking down upon it through the glass. Note here, that it is well to gum a piece of white 
paper on the stage to begin with, as the operations to be performed are thus more easily seen. 
On this stage place a glass slide, and on the slide place a morsel of the plant to be 
examined, say a quarter of an inch or so of a stem or branch. Hold this scrap firmly down 
to the slide by the first finger of your left hand, pressing the nail against its extreme end, so 
that as you look through the eye-glass you can only see the merest edge of the plant. Then, 
with the knife or lancet in your right hand, slice off this mere edge (the thinner the slice 
the better), and drawing the left nail very slightly back, leave another mere edge^ which cut 
off in a similar way ; and so another, and another, and another, till you have six or eight slices 
on your slide. 
Now wet the tip of a finger in clean water, and let down one small drop thereof upon the 
centre of the slide ; into which minute pool coax your little durchsclinitts, by the aid of the 
small pointer contained in your microscope box, and then — replacing the slide on the stage — 
give yourself the pleasure of watching the magnified slices expand in the liquid. 
