The collector's handy-book of algae : desmids, fungi, lichens, mosses, &c / with instructions for their preparation and for the formation of an herbarium by Johann Nave ; translated and edited by W.W. Spicer.
- Nave, Johann, 1831-1864.
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The collector's handy-book of algae : desmids, fungi, lichens, mosses, &c / with instructions for their preparation and for the formation of an herbarium by Johann Nave ; translated and edited by W.W. Spicer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![disagreeable to the botanist in his study, than to the insects in his herbarium ! Should it be found, that the larvs, in spite of all pre- cautions, have established themselves in any part of the herbarium, the infected packets must be at once removed, and submitted to the fumes of sulphur. For this purpose let a box be provided—if made of iron or lined with tin, so much the better—large enough to hold two or three of the packets. An air-tight lid being requisite, let a shallow groove or channel be run round the upper edge of the bo.x, to receive the lid when closed; the groove itself is to be filled with water when the box is in use, thus rendering it air-tight. It is necessary to retain the fumes of the sulphur within the box, not only on account of their evil odour, but because they are apt to produce unpleasant, and even injurious, symptoms in the operator, if imbibed to too great an extent. For the same reason, the work should be carried on in an outhouse or in the open air, not in an inhabited room. A movable framework of iron fits loosely into the box, consisting of netting, or of a few cross bars sufficiently strong to support the packets, and resting on legs three or four inches high. Now let a shallow pan of burning sidphur be laid on the bottom of the box; the framework with its packets placed over it; the lid shut down ; and the whole left un- disturbed for about forty-eight hours; and it will be found that at the end of that time not a single insect survives. I have had occasion to try this plan repeatedly, and never knew it to fail. [Another method, of which I can speak with approval, consists in placing the packets in an oven, and leaving them to bake for some hours. No form of animal life—at least of animals destructive to plants—can stand against the continued heat: it is especially useful in very damp climates. Care must be taken that the oven is not too hot, or the specimens will be rendered over-dry anc, brittle.—Ed.] The best season for making these expen-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28077064_0213.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
