Miscellaneous Notes. 
9 
The general conclusion reached is that 90°/ o alcohol is still by 
far the most satisfactory medium for preserving herbaceous 
structures, and particularly for preserving the “lie” of the parts. 
Aqueous media make the specimens too flaccid, so that the natural 
relationship of the parts is not preserved. It is not safe to use 
alcohol for this purpose of a lower strength than 90°/but for 
succulent organs lower strengths are very useful to prevent the 
wrinkling of the surface which results if they are placed directly in 
90°/ o . Such specimens should be placed in 30°/ o and slowly 
graded up to the higher percentages. Exposing the jar 
containing the specimen when first placed in alcohol to strong sun¬ 
light is recommended as greatly facilitating the bleaching process 
and preventing the formation of discolouring decomposition products, 
which may in some cases stain the specimen very badly if it is put 
in the dark in a small quantity of alcohol immediately upon being 
killed. 
None of the aqueous preservative fluids are spoken of very 
highly, they all tend to render specimens flaccid, and they do not 
really preserve the natural colours well. In the case of formalin, 
“ Red and yellow colours are retained longer than blue, but even 
red—the colour which has proved most permanent—ultimately 
fades or gives place to a brown if the jar containing the specimen 
is exposed to the light.” And again, “ formalin does not appear to 
extract chlorophyll, neither does it preserve the green colour, but 
exposed even to diffused light the chlorophyll is decomposed and the 
specimen assumes a dull brownish colour, or may, finally, be 
bleached quite white.” Solutions of formalin weaker than 10°/ o 
(i.e. 4 °/ 0 formaldehyde) do not cause such rapid fading as the 
stronger ones, but on the other hand they permit the growth of 
moulds. Further, not only is formaldehyde very volatile, so that 
the fluid seriously weakens unless the jars are very securely sealed, 
hut it appears that changes and decompositions may take place in 
it in the presence of organic substances. The other aqueous 
preservatives are not very much to be commended for strictly 
museum purposes. 
Other topics dealt with are methods of drying, and poisoning 
dried specimens, and the methods of bleaching specimens preserved 
in alcohol. Many, as is of course the common experience, bleach 
readily in 90°/ 0 alcohol; others do not, or even darken in alcohol. In 
