the veil (if present), and whether universal or not; and if absent, whether the margin is at first straight, incurved, or involute. A similar section through the mature plant is also required, E and F (Fig. 39): this will give the attachment of gills to stems (a character of great importance), and the nature of the stem itself, whether solid, stuffed, or hollow. Great care and experience are required to cut a thin and perfect slice from the middle of a tender Agaric or Boletus; for there is often a sort of articulation at the point G, which causes the slice to fall in two. As for preserving fungi in fluids, I think it in all ways undesirable. It may more or less answer for single or unique specimens, or for large museums, where space is of no consequence; but for all purposes of constant reference and private study, any process of this sort is worthless. Few persons, I imagine, would care to have hundreds (or I might say thousands) of tolerably large glass bottles of fluids in their houses. It is essential that the spores should be secured, as their colour and size are very important. They may be preserved in various ways: if coloured, they are best kept on white paper, and if white, on black glazed paper, such as is supplied to photographers; or they may be at once deposited and kept on glass slides and covered, or between thin sheets of mica, such as photographers use. I prefer the spores free on paper, as they can easily be transferred to glass for examination by breathing on a corner of a glass slide and just touching it on to the dry spores; thousands will attach themselves to the glass, and, moreover, the supply from one fungus appears to be perfectly inexhaustible. To secure a good batch of spores, it is not sufficient to let the Agaric merely rest in the position shown at H (Fig. 40), for the spores will not properly fall when this plan is adopted; a far better one is to cut a small hole, about the size of the diameter of the stem of the fungus, in the centre of the paper on which the spores are to be deposited: slip the stem through the hole, carefully draw up the paper collar, and support the fungus in a small pot, glass, or dry phial (placed under a propagating-glass to keep the plant fresh) as shown in Fig. 41. If it is wished to fix the spores, let the paper be first washed with a thin solution of gum-arabic, which must be allowed to get perfectly dry; the spores may now fall upon the dry gummed paper; and after the deposition the gummed surface must be breathed upon to moisten the gum, and when it has dried for the second time the spores will be fixed, and not readily rubbed off. [Illustration: Fig. 38. Specimens showing the gills, rings, and stages of growth.] [Illustration: Fig. 39. Section cut through Agaricus.] [Illustration: Fig. 40.] [Illustration: Fig. 41. Agaric placed to catch spores.]