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herbarium specimens the estimation of the size of the flowers becomes 
to some extent guess-work. 
Those whoknow Rangoon may recollectthepractice of selling bottles 
of flowers on the stairs of the Shwe-Dagon Pagoda. Unless, however, 
their stay has been long enough, or their interest sufficiently great, to 
have led them to notice that the flowers in these bottles are not fresh 
but preserved, they may have supposed, as the writer did, that the 
medium in which the flowers are kept is water. 
Every one, however, has not been so void of curiosity. When 
Assistant Surgeon C. L. Bose,* was in Rangoon in 1885, he was struck 
by the length of time the flowers were kept, and brought somewith him 
to Calcutta for examination. Dr. Warden, then chemical examiner, 
and Mr. Bose found on examining the fluid that it was a solution of 
Alum. The solution is of no special strength ; the Burman, being 
a happy-go-lucky individual puts some Alum into the water along with 
the flowers and is not particular as to the amount. 
Mr. Bose brought only Champak petals; some of these are in shape, 
size, colour and consistencemuchasthey werewhen taken from thetree 
eight years ago. Here then we seem to have the. means of overcoming 
the difficulty, hitherto insoluble, of preserving the natural size in speci¬ 
mens of Magnoliaceous flowers, 
Thoughonly 672 «;??/«/^was brought by Mr. Bose, the writer recollects 
seeing Plumieria and Nymphcea flowers as well, and a bottle in which 
Dr. Warden placed some green leaves with a 1% Alum solution at the 
time he examined the Rangoon bottle has its contents very much as 
they were when he put them in. There is, therefore, no reason why the 
use of Alum solution should be confined to Magnolia flowers. 
It should be understood that the use of Alum solution is only sug¬ 
gested as auxiliary to the usual means of preserving specimens. Wet 
preparations are to be avoided; they are difficult to handle, difficult to 
keep, difficult to house, and still more difficult to carry about. But 
occasionsarisewhen wetspecimensare of the greatest moment assupple- 
ments todried ones, and the Burmese preservative has the advantages 
over spiritof notdiscolouringthespecimen or rendering it brittle. Most 
important of all, one can carry Alum about as a solid and make a 
solution when required. 
If the bottles are not carefullysealed the specimens do not keep. The 
flowers immersed in the fluid do not suffer, but as the water evaporates 
theflowers at the top get exposed to the pair, decay, and fall ina floccu- 
lent mass to the bottom. This flocculent matter keeps pushing up others 
to undergo the same decomposition. But from a well-stoppered bcttle— 
* Assistant to the Chemical Examiner to Government, Calcutta. 
403 
