COLLECTING AND CURATING FRUITS AND SEEDS. 55
It is thus possible to fill a large white box here and there without
sacrificing elasticity.
There are two little points to which I must draw attention ;
one is that I advise putting the name and number on the bottom
as well as on the lid of the boxes contained in the large white
ones, because it is very easy indeed when the lids are off several
at once, especially if the contents be so alike as the achenes of
our common buttercups, to make a mistake in replacing them
unless both name and number are in each place and care be taken
to see each lid and box agree in these particulars. The other
point is to make sure when purchasing boxes that they can
be written upon easily and plainly ; it is very annoying to find
that the surface is so greasy that the pen will not mark, or
so absorbent that the ink runs into an illegible smudge.
I must now deal with the shallow pill-boxes. Comparatively
few of them will be wanted, but they are useful for large seeds,
like those of Paeonia, which are more easily seen with the naked
eye or with a lens than when in the smaller ones. In examining
seeds I turn them into the lid, and for little seeds the little lids are
large enough, but not for the big ones. It is better to use the
lid instead of the box, because of the light ; it is also much more
convenient when the microscope has to be used, for the shallow
lid is easily placed upon a slide and the seeds illuminated by the
condenser.
In connection with this I may mention that it is not at all
a bad plan to gum a few seeds in different positions to the inside
of the lid, so as to show dorsal, ventral and side views. Thus
they are always handy for work. This reminds me that certain
common plants possess seeds which, when wetted, emit a mucilage
that causes them to adhere firmly to the substratum, and this
property is of considerable dispersal value when the substratum
happens to be a dead leaf or some other unattached object easily
blown away, It adds therefore very considerably to the interest
and value of the collection to gather a few dead leaves and to
cut them into pieces small enough to go into the boxes ; if the
scrap be moistened, and two or three wet seeds put on to it,
there they will remain as a reminder of their mucosity. It may
be that they will fall off again after a time, but it will be a long
time, and even so, the piece of leaf, the name of which should
be recorded, will still be there to jog the memory.