Handbook of Instructions for Collectors

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order of the Trustees [by Hazell, Watson and Viney, ld.], 1906 - Natural history - 138 pages
 

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Page 83 - The individuals emerging on the first day were invariably males. On the second day the great majority were males, but there were also a few females. The preponderance of males continued to hold for three days; later the females were in the majority. In confinement the...
Page 124 - Blotting paper, however, especially in warmer climates, would absorb the moisture too rapidly, and by repeated damping and drying would soon be rendered useless. Two boards should be provided, — one for the top, and the other for the bottom of the mass of papers. For pressure at home, or when stationary for any length of time in a given spot, nothing serves better than a weight of any kind (a folio book...
Page 76 - At least half a dozen specimens of each sex of a species should, if possible, always be obtained, and a good look-out should be kept for specimens showing any abnormality in structure, coloration, or size. When the collector remains long enough in one spot, he should always endeavour to obtain specimens of a species on different dates, in such a way as to throw as much light as possible on the duration of its seasonal occurrence. Similarly the attempt should be made to illustrate the geographical...
Page 126 - ... hardly be subjected to pressure ; a few flowers should be pressed, and the whole cluster of flowers and fruit, as well as a leaf, may be simply dried in the air, and afterwards packed in boxes for transportation. The greater number of cryptogamic plants may be dried in the common way, such mosses as grow in tufts being separated by the hand. But both mosses and lichens, as they can at any future time be expanded by damping, may be dried by the traveller without pressure, and put up, either each...
Page 126 - Seeds, whether for examination or intended to be sown, should be gathered perfectly ripe, put up in brown paper bags, and kept dry in a box. With the specimens, fruits and seeds, there should be slips of paper, on which are to be written the uses, native names, and general appearance of the plant, whether herbaceous, a shrub, or tree, its sensible qualities, and the colour and form of the flowers; its situation, if dry or damp, the nature of the soil, the elevation above sea level, and the date when...
Page 125 - As to the spreading out of the leaves and flowers with small weights, penny-pieces, &c., it is quite needless. The leaves and flowers are best displayed by nature in the state in which you gather them ; and they will require little or no assistance with the hand, when laid out upon papers, to appear to the best advantage, especially if put in carefully on being fresh gathered. If the specimens cannot be laid down immediately...
Page 74 - ... an ordinary pin through the disc near the margin for the purpose of carrying both disc and specimen, and draw the disc a good halfway up the carrying-pin. The last thing to be done is to arrange the legs and wings as far as possible. The wings must be made to project at an angle from the body, and not allowed to remain closed over it ; if they can be got to remain at right angles to the body, so much the better.
Page 116 - ... using a slight pressure, and the anterior portion of the body should then be immersed in concentrated acetic acid. Alcohol (90 per cent) should then be injected into the mouth, and the specimens placed in 70 per cent alcohol. The injection should be repeated each time the alcohol is changed. "Synapta should be fixed by immersion in a tube containing a mixture of equal parts of sea-water and ether (or chloroform), where they remain completely expanded. They should then be washed for a short time...
Page 115 - Starfish may be prepared with the ambulacral feet in full distension by allowing them to die in 20 to 30 per cent, alcohol. Echinoids should be placed in a small quantity of water, and killed with chrom-acetic mixture No. 2, being removed from it as quickly as possible, as the acid corrodes the test. To preserve the internal parts it is necessary to make two opposite openings in the test, so that the alcohol may penetrate the interior readily. Holothurians, such as Thyone and...
Page 119 - Gymnosomatous forms should be first narcotized in 1 per cent chloral hydrate, and then killed in acetic acid or sublimate. "Decapod Cephalopods may be fixed directly in 70 per cent alcohol, making an opening on the ventral surface to allow the alcohol to reach the internal parts-. "Bryozoa. — The genera Pedicellina and Loxosoma may be left for...

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