NATURAL HISTORY.

It is the actual state of our collections and of our Knowledge of Natural History of which we are about to speak. But as this memoir, though specially destined for our Museum and for our countrymen, may be consulted by foreign naturalists for the sake of our collections as well as for their own, we would invite the attention of collectors to any point that may seem defective or capable of improvement, and we invite all travellers to make known to us the results of their experience that we, and the whole learned world, may profit by them.

It is not simply a series of instructions which we make here, it is an appeal to all who interest themselves in the cause of science and of their country. We will point out to them the means of enriching this great national establishment, which, open to public curiosity and study, can only be rendered perfect by the aid of many hands. It cannot itself support travellers except upon a few limited points, and even there, such is the inexhaustible fecundity of nature, much remains to be done.

As for amateurs, who can give but few moments to the study of Natural History, who have not hitherto occupied themselves with it, but who have, notwithstanding the desire to render their sojourn in certain points little explored, profitable to our object, we have thought that instead of collecting a great number of objects, they would do well to limit themselves to such as are signalized as curious and indicated in the list of our desirata. They could thus economise time, and employ it more usefully, not only in collecting the objects which we recommend but also in bestowing upon them that care which would insure their preservation.

These instructions are devided naturally into three chapters, corresponding to the three kingdoms of nature; each part has been prepared by such of the professors as it especially concerns.

The instructions will make known:

1^o The manner of collecting and preparing objects of Natural History.

2^o The choice and form of the notes which should accompany them.

3^o An indication of those which are more particulary wished for.

It remains for us before proceeding to the special details of this memoir, to give general instructions upon the packing of objects of Nat. His. and upon the modes proper to be employed to prevent any damage to them during their voyage.

As soon as the objects prepared as before directed, have been placed in case these cases must be closed in the best possible manner and covered with pitch or tar on their whole surface; so that neither air nor moisture can penetrate.

After this, they must be envelopped in oil cloth, and then put on board ship in such place as will be likely not to be disturbed till their arrival, and as far from the heat and vermin as possible.

Glass bottles should be packed in wooden boxes well filled with tow and sea-weed; and arranged so that they will run no risk of breaking; objects which may be spoiled by liquids in the glass bottles, should they happen to break, should not be placed with them.

When a package has been sent, information should be given directly with the statement of the number and weight of the boxes, of the ship by which they are sent, the time of sailing, and the port to which they are bound. These statements should be made in time so that boxes may be sealed at the Custom House and not be opened until they arrive at Paris.

It is evident that if living animals or vegetables are sent, the time necessary for the voyage should be calculated and the speediest and safest conveyance chosen.

CHAPTER I.

MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY.

Minerals are found either in regular and geometrical forms when they are called cristals, or in more or less irregular masses.

Among cristals there are some so situated that they can be separated without injury from the matter that envelopes them. Others compose salient groups; others are imbedded in rock.

Specimens of each of these three States should, if possible be procured; with regard to cristals enveloped in surrounding matter, particles of this matter should be detached with them (varying from 8 to 10 centimetres) so that the different minerals which accompany them may be observed.

Also portions of the masses composed of needles and fibres, or granulous or compact, having care to choose them fresh and free from those alterations that take place in these at the surface. The metallic mines should call the attention of travellers. They will observe if they are in parallel beds with the surrounding rocks or in clefts called veins which cross the bed. In detaching pieces from these mines care should be taken to leave around the principal metal portions of other metals which may be associated with them or stony substances which often accompany cristals.

It is to be desired for the progress of historic and technical mineralogy that pieces of stone should be selected which are most commonly used in the construction of public monuments and houses; and the most authentic samples should be procured of all the mineral substances employed in the useful and ornamental arts; such as sharpening stones, stones for ovens, stones to polish with and stones for potteries; having care to indicate the kinds of earth and stones which enter into the composition of each kind of pottery; whether minerals are indigenous or exotic, it must be particulary mentioned from whence they come.

If organic remains should be found in these earths, such as the bones of animals, shells, impressions of fish or vegetables, samples should be taken with care from these different bodies, leaving around them a portion of the earth or stone in which they are imbedded.

In case these earths should offer traces of volcanic origin, pieces will be taken of each substance ejected by the explosions, some of a stony nature, some as basalts, some as glass, some as obsidiennes, some as scaries, etc. For those which are prisms, care must be taken to remark the form of these prisms and the extent they occupy in the earth.

To each sample should be attached a ticket indicating the name of the country where they were found, the particular spot from which they were taken, the distance and situation of some neighbouring known town from it, the nature and appearance of the country and its elevation above the sea.

Wherever mineral waters shall be found care will be taken to fill a bottle, to cork and cement it closely.

Since those systems have been abandoned which restrained the observation of facts and comparison of those observations; since guessing of the origin of things has been renounced for studying their actual state; geology has advanced like other correct sciences. This advance has not only extended our acquaintance on the formation of the globe, but has also produced useful results for the arts. Notwithstanding we are far from knowing the various countries of the earth as we know Europe.

It is easy for those who visit these distant countries, above all the tropics, to procure us important ideas, and to send us productions, the examination of which can alone enlighten and furnish us informations on the nature of the soil in those countries and the general arrangement of the rocks which constitute the outside of the globe.

On all coasts and islands where vessels stop, travellers can land and procure objects with little trouble, which having little value in themselves, become instructive and interesting by the simple annotations which accompany them.

They can pick up on the borders of torrents pebbles which indicate the nature of the rochs from which they proceed. They will choose the largest and note their size, and also break some pieces,—also the small pebbles, having care to choose those of different appearances.

Wherever a rock is seen to rise, should it be in the water or land, it should be observed if it is all of the same substance or homogeneous or composed, or formed of different beds. In the first case a fragment must be detached, in the second case, they will observe the relative position of the beds, their inclination and thickness; and take a sample of each of the beds, and put the same mark on all the pieces coming from the same mountain, and a number on each to indicate the order of their position or reciprocal situation. If the person who procures these samples could make a simple sketch, to show the form of the mountain, the thickness and inclination of its layers, he would render an essential service.

In case the rock is an isolated one, it is useful to examine and sketch on both sides to be more certain of the inclinations of the beds.

It would be well to gather some sand from the bottoms of rivers; above all those which wash metallic dusts; but this sand must be taken as far from the mouth of the river as possible.

In some countries are found isolated masses to which the people attribute a singular origin; pieces must be taken; perhaps they are aerolithes; other may be transported by the revolutions of the globe.

In gathering fragments of rocks, mines, volcanic products and organised fossil bodies, the most essential thing is to mark well their latitude, that is to say the nature of the earth where they are found and their relative position to the substances which encircle them.

Basalt beds merit a particular attention, both as regards themselves and the kind of earth which surrounds or covers them. It must be noticed if they are divided in irregular masses, tables or prisms, and what is their arrangement. It be must remarked if they contain the remains of organised bodies, and care must be taken to take samples in their different states, also of the matter on which the basalt rests. It must be certain above all that there is no intervention of scorified matter, or beds of an earthy appareance, to which the Germans give the name of Wakke, and which are proved to be of volcanic origin. The rocks named trachytes by M. Haüy merit the same attention. They are distinguished above all by primitive porphyries, intermediate or secondary, by the absence of quartz and the presence of pyroxène or titanimmed iron.

Whatever may be the nature or age of the soil one sees, it is most important to collect samples of rocks the most common and most abundant which constitute the bulk of the soil: the study of the varieties of subordinate beds and accidental matters of all kind, should be secondary. In general the appearance of the constitution of the locality must be considered if one would proceed usfully to choose the samples destined to represent them; the choice would be easy if one would establish a rule never to quit a declivity, a mountain, a country even, without having made the section (geologically). We should add that these sections should be the principal object in the labours of the geological traveller.

Too large samples must not be taken, samples of 10 to 8 centimètres, by 3 or 4 of thickness, are sufficient. Larger samples must not be taken unless they contain the remains of organic fossils, such as animal skeletons. To pack these samples, they must be covered with fine paper; above this paper they will put the ticket or note of bearing or latitude, then a second fine paper that will be surrounded with tow, and all will be enveloped in grey paper. These samples will then be put in a box, placing them upright and in successive beds, as close together as possible, and filling the interstices with cut paper or tow, in a way to form a mass that nothing can derange. No space must be left between the last bed and the cover. The box must be tarred to avoid humidity.

The merit of geological collections being principally in the knowledge of local circumstances in which each sample is taken, it is indispensable to join to these collections well-arranged catalogues. They will repeat the numbers of the samples and directions written on the labels; all details should be inserted which may give a complete idea of the strata which have been observed, and sketches and drawings taken on the spot should be placed either in the margin or the body of the books. It would be well to have duplicates of the catalogues. One of them pressed between two pieces of board well tied, should be placed on the top of one of the boxes, the other should be adressed directly to M. Vattemare.

CHAPTER II.

BOTANY.

The botanical riches of the museum are composed—1^o Of living vegetables cultivated in the garden—2^o of the collection of dry plants or herbals, of the different parts of plants dried and in alchool, such at woods, fruits, etc. And of all the produits of the vegetable kingdom that are capable of preservation—3^o of the collection of fossil plants.

Living plants.

To promote the progress of science, agriculture and horticulture, it is important to collect in a central garden, like that of Paris, the greatest number of living plants possible.

To attain this end, either living plants must be sent, or their seeds. Both of these ways are attended with difficulties, according to the nature of the plants, and the length of the voyage they have to endure.

We shall only treat the parcels sent from countries out of Europe that must endure a voyage of from one to four or five months, because packages which are on the road but 15 or 20 days, only require those ways of putting up employed in all the nurseries of Europe.

In the transportation of living plants, distinction should be made of the ligneous plants, young trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, which are neither pulpy plants, tubercles or roots, from that of these last vegetables.

The transportation of the roots, underground bulbs and tubercles, such as those of the lily tribe, irides, dioscarea, land archides, aroidees, gesneria, of many of the Oxalis, Trospoculum, etc., is easily effected by packing these parts carefully in dry moss, or very dry sand, with wich the box should be filled up; the parasitic orchides or epyphites, with green bulbs, can be sent in wooden boxes, pierced with little holes, and kept dry; all the old leaves should be taken off, as, in their decay, they cause dampness, and the roots wrapped in dry moss or cloth. The same means may be used for the pulpy plants, such as the cactus: any dry flexible substance, not subject to dampnes, as hairwool etc. may be used to pack them. These pulpy plants, if large, should be separated from the others, so that they may not be tainted by their decay.

They should be packed with great care, because their tissue, more watery than that of the tubercles and roots, may be crushed under their weight, often considerable.

For the transportation of living plants, neither pulpy or tuberculous, it is necessary to place them in glazed boxes, of a peculiar construction, first invented and used in England by M. N. Ward.

These boxes vary in form and size but not to take up too much room on the decks of ships, where they should always remain; they should not exceed the following dimensions:

9 to 11 decimetres long, 5 wide, 7 to 40 high.

The bottom should not touch the deck, but must be raised some centimetres by the feet on the four corners, so that sea water may not damp the box.

The two smal sides of the oblong chest cut in the upper part in pointed shape, have two glassed frames, and form a two-sided roof.

The sides and bottom should be made of oak or hard wood from 25 to 30 millimetres thick, dry and joined with groves, so that there may be no fissure.

The glassed frames are divided by cross pieces from 4 to 5 centimetre wide, extending from the upper to the lower edge, from 7 to 8 centimètres apart. These grooved cross pieces receive the glasses which should be thick, covering one another like the tiles of a roof, and well cemented. One of the frames is fixed on one of the sides of the chest; the other is fixed on the other sides, and on the upper frame opposite, with screws well oiled to prevent rust. These boxes should be well puttied and painted.

Two strong iron handles should be fixed on each end of the box; and a solid grate made of iron wire, propped above the glasses by several iron rods, will prevend their fracture.

A bed of 4 or 5 centimetres of clayey earth moist enough to stick to the bottom, is first put in the box; then a layer of earth, mined if possible with vegetable decay of 15 or 20 centimetres; the plants are embedded in this earth either in pots or wicker baskets.

To prevent accidents on a long voyage and especially from the port to Paris, straw and rushes may be used, with wooden cross pieces nailed to the partitions of the chest.

A box of the size described contains from 15 to 25 or 30 plants according to their size.

Seeds, especially of the kinds that preserve with difficulty their germinating power, may be sown among these plants, such as those of the palms, laurels, oaks, several conifers, roses, etc.

Plants put in these boxes should have good roots, and not taken directly from the country. In case they are, time should be given them to take root, before closing the box.

Before closing the box, care should be taken to water the earth well, but not too much.

It should then be hermetically sealed, and not opened during the voyage. It should be kept on the open deck, and if the glasses are broken, they should be immediatly replaced; if there are holes in the wood, they should be puttied.

The box should never be put below except it contains tropic plants and the cold extreme. For light frosts, a cloth is sufficient, and they should have all the sun possible.

The best time for sending plants to France is betwen April and october.

Seeds should also be sent.

A great number of seeds keep for a year and more, if gathered ripe and kept dry. Seeds are ripe when they fall off, or when the fruits, that inclose them, open. But seeds apparently dry, often contain a great quantity of water which would mould them, if put up in that state. They should be dried by the sun in the open air several days before packing, especially berries and pulpy fruits. They should be pressed and dried in the sun or in brown paper, like plants prepared for herbals.

The best way of keeping them, in a long voyage, is to dry them perfectly, wrap them in thick paper, and put them in thick bags hung in a dry and airy place.

There are seeds, especially those that contain oily matter, that must be germinated on the voyage. Such are, among exotics, the seeds of our climate, cocorus, chesnust, beechnuts; and among exoctics, the seeds of the Laurel, many of the Palms, several Conifers, Arancarias, tea and coffee seeds, goyaviers, and other myrtinees.

The best way of sending these seeds is to sow them in the glass cases described above, either among other plants, or in special boxes of smaller size; but common boxes or barrels will do, if there are no glass boxes, well filled with earth. The seeds should be put in light earth a little damp, or in dust of decayed wood. Five or 6 centimetres of earth are put at the bottom of a box, and the seeds sown in this earth at distances, equal to the size of the seed. Then another layer of earth of three centimetres, then a bed of seeds, and so on up to 3 or 4 decimetres in height. Care should be taken to fill the box so that the seeds may not be injured.

Care should be taken to keep the box dry, and beyond the reach of salt water, which always kills plants and seeds.

All the plants should be labelled—The numbers should correspond with a catalogue which should declare for each plant: 1^o The country from which it comes—2^o The kind of soil where it grows, such as woods, rocks, meadows, marshes, etc.—3^o An approximation to the height of the place, if it comes from a mountainous country, so as to distinguish the plants of the tropics and the temperate and frigid zones—4^o The common name of the plant, either among the Europeans established in the country or the natives—5^o Its uses, its characteristics, and the color of its flowers.

This information should be marked in the catalogue of seeds sent stratified or sown in the glass cases; for seeds preserved dry in bags, it is best to write these notes upon the bags.

We cannot particularise all the plants we desire, because our wants vary every year by new acquisitions and losses; but the administration will endeavour to give them to the inhabitants of distant countries who are willing to lists of supply our deficiencies.

We will specify some families and kinds whose absence in our collection of living plants we regret.

These are:

1^o Those which grow alike in the tropical regions of the old and new continent:

The Rhizophorees (mangliers and paletuviers) chailletices, connaracies, burmaniacees, xyridee, Eriocolons, Podostemees, the loranthus parasites, lardizabalees, Pistias.

Among the Fern, Gleichenias, Trochomanes, Hymenophyllum, schizea, Danaea, Angiopteris, Salvinia and Azolla.

2^o In Asia:

Dipterocarpiees, aquilarinees (aloes or eagle-wood), Apostasiees, Guetrum (guemon of Molucca), the nipa, a kind of Palm-tree.

Dry vegetables or vegetables preserved in alcohol.

These collections contains:

1^o Herbals or plants dried in leaves of paper;

2^o Fruits and preserved seeds, either dry or in alcohol;

3^o Pulpy flowers also preserved in liquor;

4^o Portions of roots, trunks and samples of wood;

5^o Different products of the vegetable kingdom, such as flax, starch, gums, resins, dyestuffs, substances employed in the medicine or the arts;

6^o Samples relative to anatomy and vegetable physiology.

The care necessary to enrich these collections are generally less than those required for zoology.

Herbals and collections of fruits and flowers—Samples in buds, flowers and fruits of plants intended for herbals should be collected when the plant is small, and generally when it is of a size to be kept in a leaf of paper by folding. It should be taken with the root; when it is larger, it should be cut in pieces of 40 or 50 centimetres (16 to 18 inches). Or the great herbaceous plants, whose leaves vary often at different heights on the trunk, the base of the stalk with the leaves that support it should be preserved,—and branches with flowers and leaves. A layer of several leaves of brown paper is placed alternatively with a sample of a plant, or several, if they are small and can be spread on the paper without touching. Then a new layer of paper, then a new sample, and so on. When the packet has a certain thickness (2 to 3 decimetres at most) it should be pressed between two pieces of paste board by means of cords or girths and a buckle. The pressure should be moderate, enough to prevent the plants from wrinkling, but not enough to change their shapes, or crush their tissue by flattening them too much. The parcels, to dry well, should be placed on a dry board; or, better, hung up, so that the boards be in a vertical position. It is well to change several time the layers of paper; first, soon after the drying has commenced.

The drying of plants may be much quickened by dividing them into packets of 8 or 10 packets only, with very little paper between, and pressing them between two frames furnished with a wire grate tied up by strings; a layer of four or five leaves of paper should be placed on each side, immediately under the grate, to render the pressure more uniform and keep the plants from crisping; if these small packets are exposed to the sun or a current of air, the plants dry rapidly, often before the paper is changed that contains them; but unless there is a great number of these frames, it is impossible to dry but a small number of plants, and this process would be especially useful for those persons to whom the formation of an herbal is but an accessory occupation.

Botanists who wish to dry many plants without using much paper should place packets of 15 or 20 plants, arranged as we have just pointed out, in a stove with a current of air, heated up to 50 centigrades by a lamp placed below, and separated from the plants by a cross partition of punctured plate.

In twelve or twenty four hours the specimens are perfectly dry. This process, first successfully employed in Paris by M. Doyère, is most useful in warm and damp climates, and for plants difficult to dry; it is easily employed in scientific voyages.

Bamboo frames, found everywhere in tropical climates, replace excellently frames and bars of iron.

There is another more speedy process which requires much less paper, but preserves less perfectly the dried specimens. It only needs a dry and spacious room. The flowers are placed in a simple sheet of paper and pressed; then the sheets are spread out, for the night, on the floor, and, when dry, pressed again. This process it not so good as the former, and should be made use of only when there is a lack of paper.

This is all the art of making herbals; and every intelligent traveller knows how to suit his process to circumstances.

In damp times and regions, it is well to quicken the process of drying. Paper perfectly dry should only be used, and changed often. The paper should be dried in a warm oven, where bread has just been baked.

Watery plants, such as bulbs, orchides, etc., continue green in herbals several months after they are placed in them. It is well to plunge them in boiling water for one minute, or, still better, to put them in alcohol for a couple of hours; then they should be taken out and placed between two leaves of brown paper, where it dries easily, as the action of boiling water or alcohol has destroyed the life of the plant.

There are plants whose leaves or flowers easily break after drying; in such cases, all the parts should be sent separately.

There are families of plants that require peculiar processes of preservation. Palms, on account of their size, cannot be preserved in common herbals. Yet, it is important to complete the history of this remarquable family. For this, must be preserved:—1^o The dried leaves in paper spread out, when they are not too large; folded like a fan, dried in the air and wrapped in brown paper well tied, when they are large.—2^o Clusters of flowers or carymbs with the common envelope, taking care to preserve equally the male and female flowers, when they are separate; they should be dried quickly in the open air and wrapped in paper or cloth, taking care to collect the flowers that fall of. When these clusters are not large, it would be well to preserve them in weak alcohol, and, in all cases, it should be used for branches to be put in the same jar with ripe fruits of the same plant.—3^o Clusters of ripe fruits dried in the air and other fruits in alcohol.

Those great marine plants, commonly known by the name of sea-weed, should be dried by hanging them in the shade, in the open air, without pressing them in paper; they should, afterwards, be put in paper bags, with a label of the place where they were collected and their color when fresh.

They can be better prepared in Paris than in travelling, as they often require much care, unless the traveller is skilled in the art. Samples preserved in alcohol would be useful for anatomical researches.

Before drying the small kind in the same manner in the open air, all the sea water should be pressed out, by squeezing them gently, and absorbing it with brown paper.

The most of the other criptogamous plants, such as the fern, mosses, lichens, mushrooms large and small, are prepared in herbals as other vegetables.

The only proper way to preserve the pulpy mushroom is alcohol, or wrapping them in flax or cotton; but a note or sketch should be made of their colors, for only their form and structure are thus preserved. Young specimens of these plants are preferable.

However the collections we have spoken of are made, a label should be attached to each of the specimens indicating:

1^o The place where the plant was found, and if the place is little known, its position with relation to one that is;

2^o The time of the gathering of the specimens, whether in flower or fruit;

3^o The name the plant bears, taking care to have it repeated several times, and its meaning should be added, whenever it is known;

4^o The uses of the plant in domestic economy, the arts or medicine;

5^o The color of the different parts and particulary that of the flower, its odor, the consistence of the fruit, and the manner it opens, when ripe; in fine, all the phenomena relative to the plant;

6^o The size, direction and consistence of the plant. If it is a tree of some size, and if the traveller can sketch, it would be well to give a drawing of its form, especially for palms and other monocotyledons; common trees, if there is no sketch made or them, they may be compared to some of the best known trees in Europe;

7^o Numbers should be written on the separate samples of the fruits, seeds, flowers, or wood of the same plant, which form the parcel the traveller sends, as well as on the samples of the same plant that he keeps and on his catalogue or journal, so that he can afterwards give accurate information of the plants he sends. These numbers should not be repeated during the same tour, but should form a series, to avoid confusion.

If the traveller can measure, or knows the height above the sea of the regions he travels over, he should add to the note relative to each plant a statement of the height where it was found; the exact height is not necessary. If he does not know the height, the omission can be partially remedied by the most remarkable and abundant vegetables that grow around [4].

Dry fruits should be sent in boxes with a label and number corresponding to that of the branch of the plant, in the herbal, to which they belong. All the dry fruits of too large size to be well preserved in herbals, should be collected separately, the ripest chosen, dried carefully and wrapped in paper. Those of palms, pandanus, zamia, conifers, proteacees, lecythidees, cucurbitacees, the leguminous family, the bignonias, bombacees, sterculiacees, especially deserve to be collected separately.

Pulpous fruits should be sent in weak alcohol at 18^°, in acetic or pyro-liqueous acid dissolved in water, or in water saturated in marine salt, if these two first liquids can not be had, for the preservation of objects is much less certain and less perfect in this fluid. Each kind should be put in a separate jar and envelopped in cloth, flax or cotton, or if several kinds are put in the same jar, each kind should be put in separate bags with special labels.

Among the pulpy fruits that deserve to be collected, we shall particulary point out those of several palms, many of the Bromiliacees, resembling the ananas, aroidees, sapotees, and Diospyrees; several annonacees, the pulpy-fruited Capparidees, Papayers, the soft-fruited Cucurbitacees, Guthifers, Aurantiees.

It is desirable that flowers too delicate or too pulpy to be easily analysed when dry should be, also, sent in flasks of weak alcohol or acetic acid much weakened with water; such are those of the Orchides, Balisiers, Aroïdes, Asclepiades, and all other plants difficult to preserve in herbals. It is important to tie on the flask a label marked with the name of the plant, or at least, a number corresponding to that which bears in the herbal the sample of the plant to which the sample belongs. Labels on jars frequently falling off, it would be best to mark these jars with paint, or to put in each jar a bit of wood or parchment bearing the number, or a label written with crayon or ink, if the objects are in alcohol, or on thin pieces of lead marked with a knife. When several plants are put in the same jar, a label, thus marked, should be attached to each. Without this precaution, the collection is useless. Flowers of the different species should not be put in the same viol. If it is ever necessary, a label should be attached to each. Or they should be put in paper pasted together, with the necessary specifications on the envelope.

If there is neither viol nor alcohol, the flowers may be dried in the air without pressing, and then folded in paper and labelled; care should be taken to put them up, so that there may be no danger of pressure.

Entire specimens in flower and fruit of parasites with their roots and the root in which they are imbedded should be preserved in alcohol, or vinegar, or salt-water. Males and females of these plants, in which the sexes are generally separated, should be collected. These plants are generally remarkable for the absence of leaves, for their pulpy consistence and creeping character.

Herbals and fruits, when perfectly dry, should be put in tin, or, at least, well painted boxes so as to be beyond the reach of mice or insects.

Leaves of paper containing plants, should be well pressed together in packets and placed between two sheets of plain paper, before being put in boxes.

In packing up, several samples may be placed between each leaf of paper, and the number of leaves placed between be lessened, if necessary; the packets should always be well pressed together. Any kind of paper is good for packing; bananas or any large-leafed plant can replace it; it is only necessary that the plants should be arranged with care, so as to give an equal thickness to the packets in all their parts.

If there is time the specimens should be preserved by plunging the dry plant in an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate (15 to 20 grammes for a litre of alcohol at 36°), or to rub it with a pencil, then to dry it in a leaf of paper, which requires but a few instants. With this precaution, all the specimens sent may be preserved; and for not making use of it, several parcels of plants have arrived damaged by insects.

If the plants are fumigated with sulphur, they will be preserved from insects for a long time.

Among those sent, there will be many we have received before; but they will not be useless.

Plants preserved in herbals, which we already possess, will be employed in forming special herbals for different countries, very useful for the study of botanical geography and to facilitate the researches of travellers, either by making exchanges, with foreign museums, or to enrich the principal museum of the departments.

Besides, there are always objects that corrupt by time, which it is useful to renew.

Collections of plants, from whatever country they come, have always a certain number of plants which the museum does not possess, or offers them in a different state from those we possess and so are always interesting, when well made; but there are countries little known, from which we desire to receive all that can be collected.

The North-America: the Floridas and southern parts of Louisiana, Arkanzas and Texas, a great part of Mexico, particulary the northen part, as well as California, the southern part of Mexico, and the countries comprehended between that state and the isthmus of Panama; the great iles of the Antilles, Haïti, Cuba and Jamaïca, though formerly explored, are now scarcely represented in our herbals.

Botany is already cultivated with success in many countries. Travellers can, sometimes, find herbals already collected; it would be useful to procure them, especially if they have but a short time to stay or even a single season, after assuring themselves that these herbals are made with care. This would be important, especially in countries where the flora has been treated by some resident botanist, and the kinds and species proper to these local floras should, if possible, be obtained.

Collections of wooden stalks or trunks of trees.

This collection should be made in a different manner, for the trunks of the monocotyledons and ferns, and for those of the dicotyledons. For the first, such as the palms, vaquois or pandamas, the dracœna or dragoniers and the ferns in trees, etc. whose structure varies in height according to the age of the trees, it would be desirable to obtain grown and entire trunks, from the root to the top of the tree, when transportation can be affected without difficulty or expense. But when the size of the trunks and difficulties of transportation are so great that it can not be conveyed entire, it should be sent in three pieces of 50 centimetres each in length, taken, the first at the base with the roots, the second in the middle, and the third from the top with the first clusters of leaves. When the trunks are very large, damp and hard to dry, it is well, to quicken their drying, to split them lengthwise through the middle, but the two halves should always be sent and round pieces cut cross wise from 6 to 10 centimetres thick.

For the dycotelodons vegetables one of the principal trunks or a perfectly healthy branch should be taken, and a portion of it 40 or 50 centimetres long preserved; the size best suited for samples is from 10 to 20 centimetres in diameter. Generally the age of the trunk or branch should be such as to have at the same time perfect wood and pulp; for the kinds of wood used for building, it is necessary that the samples should be taken from trunks large enough to give an idea of the physical qualities of the woods. The samples should be sent with the bark entire. If there is danger that they do not dry well and shrink, they should be sawed lengthwise, at some distance from the pith, so that it may remain perfect on one of the pieces, and even in that case, it is well to send, besides the two halves of wood sawed lengthwise, an entire round of from 5 to 6 centimetres thick.

All these samples of trunks whether monocotyledons or dicotyledons, should not be boxed or sent off before they are perfectly dry. They should until then be kept as much as possible far from insects. It is indispensable to give interest to these samples of wood, to label them with numbers corresponding with samples of branches with leaves and flowers or fruits dried botanically, so that they can be determined with precision.

These numbers should be written on the edge wood cut very plain, either with ink or black crayon, or, better, with paint. When the samples are few, they can be notched or marked with Roman characters cut deep in the wood. It is very important either in the catalogues or in the labels of the samples in the herbals to write the common names which the trees bear, in the country where the samples were gathered, as these names are more generally known for the great vegetables than for the little plants; and by this precaution new information can be more easily obtained concerning the trees.

After having indicated the manner of making collections we shall now go on to particularise the vegetables whose trunks we especially desire to obtain.

The collection of the museum is already rich in trunks of arborescent fern. Yet it possesses but very few of those which do not belong to the tribe of Cyathees, such as the Diplazium, Dicksonia, Lomaria, Angiopteris.

Among the woods of the dicotyledonous trees, we shall place, in the first rank all the woods employed in the arts and particularly in cabinet-making and dying; woods which we receive only in the state in which commerce brings them to us and which it would be very interesting to have complete with their pith and bark and especially with a branch in flower or fruit preserved in herbal which facilitates the determination of their scientific appellation. With the exception of a small number of woods of Brazil, which we have received in this manner, we have every thing to ask in this respect from Brazil as well as from Guyana and the Antilles, and samples suited to clear up the history different sorts of cabinet woods, fron woods, pallissander, yellow woods, etc. would be of great interest. We shall cite, besides, the wood of the fig-tree sycomore of Egypt, employed by the ancient Egyptians, those of the Meliacees or Cedrelacees of India, that of the Flindersia of New Holland.

Under the point of view of vegetable anatomy, the other trees, which do not furnish woods employed in the arts, are not less interesting, and all should be collected; but the branches need not be so large, say from 8 to 10 centimetres in diameter. The countries which have not yet added anything to the collection, and in which are to be found the objects that we want, are in the ancient continent, Arabia, Persia, but, above all, China, Cochinchina and the great isles of Asia; New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, whose vegetation is peculiar and from which we have as yet scarce a single sample of wood; Senegal, the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar and Abyssinia: in the New Continent, Mexico and California, Peru, Colombia and the Magellan. In these different localities, should be procured not only specimens of wood from large trees, but the principal stalks of shrubs and of the great ligneous plants which never obtain the same size in our climate. But among the dicotyledonous vegetables there is none that merit the attention of naturalists as the creeping ligneous plants known as so much lianes. Almost all these plants present a remarkable structure, more or less anomalous, which may throw a light on the mode of increase and nourishment of vegetables. Samples of these fruits, collected by MM. Gaudichaud, Perrottet, Guillemin, Melinon, have already suggested valuable ideas. But there are yet many gaps to fill up, and persons living in warm countries could supply us with important documents, by collecting not only portions of all these plants but by sending pieces if the stalks of sufficient size taken from the foot of the oldest trees with the roots of younger trunks; young branches of from one to two years old and branches with leaves and flowers dried botanically. The essential point would be for each kind to have the succession of its different ages from the branches of the first year with their leaves, flowers and fruits up to the oldest trunks; and the samples should be easily gathered when the great trees are cut down in the forest, round which twine these parasites. The common names which they bear in their country should be marked with care both for the creepers and the trees as well as the virtues ascribed to them, and the uses to which they are applied. It is essential for most of the parasites, even when they are not of large size, and especially of those which contain much water, like the trunks of the Cissus, to cut directly pieces some centimetres thick, as their organisation is better preserved than that of the larger trunks.

All the different pieces coming from one trunk should be labelled with the same number.

Production of vegetables.

We comprehend under this designation all the parts of vegetables or products of the vegetable kingdom, which are of sufficient interest to merit collection; such as vegetable fibre employed in the fabrication of tissues or cordages; natural tissues coming from the preparation of the bark of trees; paper, made directly from certain plants; starches, with the starch prepared at the place where the plant grows, tubercles root, branches and seeds from which it is extracted; gums, sugars, resins, vegetable wax, and other concrete sugars elaborated by vegetables; dye stuffs; besides, roots, barks, leaves or fruit, used either in medicine or the industrial arts.

It is essential, as much as possible, to join to these objects, with a label of the same number, a sample in a herbal of the plants which produce them; and to give the common name both of the plant and the stuff used, and the uses to which it is applied.

Samples gathered with these precautions in the countries where these products are developed would be interesting even for the objects which generally arrive in Europe through commerce; for, in great number of cases, the origin of these stuffs is obscure, the distinction of their kind and different qualifies very difficult, and many of them are adulterated by falsifications or secondary preparations.

It would be well to send a sufficient quantity of each of these stuffs for certain experiments which may be judged interesting; from one to two kilogrammes would generally be a suitable quantity.

The stuffs that are liable to be attacked by insects should by placed, well dried, in boxes, bottles or earthern jars perfectly sealed.

Specimens relating to vegetable anatomy and physiology.—Many objects useful for extending the study of these branches of botany are comprehended in the collections of trunks, fruits and dried plants which we have already particularised; we recommend here, under this special tittle, the collection of samples which would show the deviation from the usual structure of vegetables, or those which must be preserved in a particular manner in order to be submitted to observation. Such are:

1^o The results of experiments tried, frequently, for a different end, on vegetables which do not grow in Europe—

Thus trunks of the palm trees on which are made notches or perforations to extract the sweet sap that oozes from them.

The trunks of Dragoniers (Drocœna) on which should have been practised these punctures for a time more or less remote.

Examples of punctures more or less entirely grown over on the trees whose wood is very different from that of indigenous trees, such as the very soft woods of Baobab, the Papayers, and on the very hard woods as iron wood, ebon, etc.

2^o The excrescences and other anomalies of the developement of these woods, by knowing exactly the tree on which they have been observed or gathered.

3^o The parasitical plants inserted on the trunks or roots, which bear them, such as the loranthus, viscum, and other parasites on the branches, the Rafflesia hyduora, balanophara on the roots; these samples, showing the parasitical plants still fixed on a portion of the plant which nourishes them, ought to be preserved dry for the ligneous species, in alcohol, for the herbaceous or pulpy species.

4^o Monstruosities or anomalies of structure of flowers or exotic fruits, preserved in alcohol.

Fossil vegetables.—The collections of this kind at the museum (for several years) have greatly increased, and the researches of travellers and correspondents of the establishments will soon give them still more importance. Up to this present time, these collections comprehend, almost entirely, the fossil vegetables of Europe; yet it is known that the soils that produce them are found in the most remote parts of the world, and the comparison of fossils coming from great distance would be of great interest for geological theories. Thus, coal-land, so rich in fossil plants in Europe, is excavated at a great number of points in North America, in the East Indies, in China, and New-Holland, and is found, without doubt, in other places; the mines of the United States have been worked with care for the fossils which they contain, and have already supplied our galleries with numerous specimens.

It must not be forgotten that to classify exactly these fossils considerable number of specimens is frequently necessary and that a collection of the varieties found together in the same soil is often one of the most important results; that consequently, especially in distant localities, the greatest number of specimens possible should be collected and sent.

Specimens should especially be procured which present the stamps of leaves entire and perfectly marked, the trunks which show still the carbonised bark which covered them, and the impression of the insertions of the leaves that it bore, besides characterised fruits, such as those analogous to the cones of the pines, the fruits of the palm trees, etc.

Coal-land, although more rich, in general, than any other in vegetable fossils, is not the only one which contains them; the secondary formation, and the tertiary present also numerous impressions of leaves, of branches, of flowers even and of fruits, whose succession at different epochs of formation, and comparative structure in various countries of the world is not less interesting. Their acquisitions cannot be too strongly recommended; but it is necessary, as much as possible, to join to these fossils, the animal fossils which may accompany them, which will better tend to determine the epoch of the formation of the deposit which contains them.

There is still another class of vegetable fossils which, in later times, has acquired more importance than has been given to them before; they are petrified woods which by a new process of preparation, permit to study their interior organisation, and to compare them to living woods; these woods are found in the deposits of every epoch, and in countries the farthest separated. They belong to families and classes very different; thus their examination is very important. It should be recommended to persons, who encounter them, to collect them with great care, in choosing pieces which appear to differ, not so much by their exterior form as by their interior structure.

It is not necessary to send large samples of the characteristics which distinguish them as regards their interior structure and especially for the dicotyledonous woods with concentric layers; it is best, on the contrary, to break them neatly with the hammer and to reduce them about 1 decimetre cube. The only large pieces which ought to be preserved are those of the monocotyledons, which as the woods of palms and the woods which would be analogous to the trunks of the tree ferns, for there it is necessary, as much as possible, to have the trunk entire from the centre to the surface and in length of 2 to 3 decimetres. Among places where the most remarkable and varied fossil woods have been found, we would cite the little Antilles, above all Antigua, Saint-Lucy and the Martinique. The museum possesses but few specimens from these places.

All the specimens of fossil plants, which may be addressed to the museum, should be wrapped with care, in two or three papers; those which have delicate impressions should be covered in their face with cotton or lint, above all if the rock or stone is tender; if the samples are thin and fragile, as often arrives with impressions upon slates, they should be placed in separate boxes. The boxes should be proportionate to the size of the samples, so as to be filled compactly that they may not be shaken in transportation; fossil should not be put in the same case whith dried plants or glass cases. Without these precautions the samples would rub and the impressions be effaced.

CHAPTER III.

ZOOLOGY.

Zoophytes, Worms and Moluscs.—The sea is peopled by an infinity of animals soft or gelatinous grouped as moluscs, worms or zoophytes, of which some live isolated, others in society. The greatest part of these animals are unknown, and their study is very important, as they give us general notions on the organisation of beings and on the diversity of forms under which living nature shows herself.

Surgeons and amateurs of natural history travelling on board ships might procure us a great number of these curious animals.

It is sufficient to take them with a net, to wash them well in warm water, to put them in alcohol with the precautions that we shall point out, and to prepare a note which indicates the latitude of the place where they are taken, if they live solitary or in society, if they are phosphorescent, if they inhabit a certain depth or the surface of the sea. The colors of gelatinous animals not keeping well in liquor, it is very important to mention them.

Rocks, sea weed, the bottom of the sea are covered with shells of a gelatinous or flesh-look aspect of very bright colors, that may be mistaken for lifeless bodies; yet they are formed by the aggregation of a crowd of little microscopic animals, whose organisation is very varied; care should be taken to remove them with the blade of a knife, and these beds, not generally very thick, should be plunged in spirits of wine, taking care to note their color, which quickly disappears.

It would be useful to collect numerous sponges, and to preserve them in alcohol.

There exist, in the depths of the sea, a multitude of animals which do not appear on the surface, and which are entirely unknown. They are obtained with the drag; frequent use should be made of the drag from several fathoms up to the greatest depths; that is as far as 150 fathoms.

Not less care should be taken to collect the land shells as those of the sea. Fossil shells are likewise of great interest.

Very frail shells, oursins, sea-stars, etc., should be wrapped in cotton and placed, each one apart in a box. It would be well to wash in chalk water oursins and sea-stars; the greatest number possible of these animals should be preserved in spirits of wine, taking care to surround them with thread, or even fine linen or cotton, and, afterwards, wound with thicker linen or several turns of thread, so as to hinder the points or spines from falling. The madrepores of a certain volume should be fixed by wire to the bottom of the box in which they are placed, but these frail substances would arrive in better order, if each specimen was placed in a box apart.

The shell-fish should be placed in alcohol. The outer shell, when it is spiral, should be broken at the upper part, and at several points of the spire, to let the liquor run in, so that the whole animal may be preserved; it is possible, following this indication, to have shell-fish in such order, that they may be dissected, even after being a very long time in the collections.

In calm or gentle breezes, it is well to have ready a gauze net to seize the sea molluscs, whose number is considerable. They should be watched and drawn several times a night, for it is probable that the spirule will be found at the surface of the water. Fishes should be opened to find this same spirule which is doubtless caught by them; the other Cephalopodes are not less numerous or less curious to study.

There is a class of being called marine worms or Annelides, of which but a few kinds are known, because little pains have been taken to collect them; these animals frequent generally the shores of the sea, a great number live in the interstices of madrepores, several make deep holes in the sand or in the mud. With spades and hammers they could be easily procured; it would be necessary to preserve them in alcohol, as the greatest part of these kinds make themselves sheaths, it would be well to collect them and put them in spirits of wine. Ordinarily these animals quickly change color; it would be well to note their color; it would be always well to do this for the leeches, whose colors disappear as soon as they are dead. The attention of naturalists should be directed towards the lombrics or earth-worms. These animals could be sent us alive as well as all the land molluscs, by sending them in closed boxes containing a little earth or damp moss.

It would be well to look for the entozoaires or helminthes of different animals and send them, declaring at the same time the animal and viscera whence the worm is extracted.

Articulated animals.—Articulated animals (viz. insects, spiders, crustacees, etc.), compose the principal family of the animal kingdom; collections made in distant countries include generally a considerable proportion of new-varieties and the capture, preservation and transport of these little beings offer no serious difficulties. We recommend in a special manner to the attention of travellers enthomological researches; undertaken with zeal and intelligence, even by a person who is not a naturalist, they can not fail of being useful to science and important for the museum. In this, as in the other branches of zoology, it is not only the large and brilliant kinds which are more valued by the naturalist; generally it is, on the contrary, among the small insects or those of plain colors that the more novel forms are found; for collectors have ordinarily neglected them, and even in the best explored regions (in the environs of Paris, for example) are discovered varieties which, till now, have escaped attention. As for the manner of forming these collections and the particular indications relative to the classes into which is divided this vast division of the animal kingdom, and, consequently, we shall give to each of these groups a separate article.

Insects.—What we have said of articulated animals in general, is particularly applicable to insects, whose number is immense, and whose forms vary beyond all imagination. The kinds differ extremely from one country to another, often even from one locality to another, and it is rare to find perfect identity between insects which inhabit different regions, though often, at the first glance, no difference can be detected between them; besides, there is no point on the globe, where the enthomologic Faun is completly known, and although our museum has about eighty thousand kinds, our galleries do not include half that are seen in looking through the different collections of Europe. It results that, in all countries, travellers who occupy themselves with enthomology, can render themselves useful to the museum, and, in distant countries, they should not neglect collecting all the insects they find, even when the kinds do not appear to differ in anything from those found every day at home. There are some parts of the globe, which, enthomologically, deserve to fix the attention of the collecter, either by reason of their extraordinary richness or on account of the small number of parcels yet sent to the museum. Such are: the west part of Africa, from the gulf of Beninso the cape of good Hope; the Birman Empire, Assan, and even the interior of India, whence the English enthomologist receive so many remarkable varieties; Borneo, the Phillipines and the neighbouring isles; the western and northern part of Australia; the west coast of North America, from Mexico to Behring's strait, and the great basins of the Amazon.

In general entomologists content themselves with collecting insects without studying the manners and mode of life of these animals; yet they thus fulfill but a part of their duty, for it is necessary for the progress of science to have exact notions on this subject. Thus, it is well to indicate, whenever it is possible, not only the locality where the insect is found, but, besides, the nature of the locality, the names of the plants on which the variety is found, and all the particulars relative to its manner of life. It would be interesting to have samples of the products of the industry of these little beings, the nest of bees and ants, the combs of wild bees, cocoons, etc. The stuffs supplied by insects and used in the arts, are equally important to collect and study with regard to their mode of production. Besides, we shall call the attention of travellers to the alteration made by insects in the plants they inhabit, the manner many of them pierce the bark of trees or even the wood, eat or roll the leaves, or cause in them, by their stings escrescences, etc. Specimens of these alterations would be of great interest to enthomology, especially when united with the insect that occasions them.

We urge travellers, likewise, to look for cheniles and the other larvæ, and to preserve some of them alive, in order to obtain a perfect insect, or, at least, a crysalis. Larvæ whose origin is unknown would be of scarce any interest to the museum, while a collection in which each larvæ is united whith the perfect insect would be of great interest.

Besides the insects that live as parasites on other animals should not be neglected.

Insects are easily caught and need few instruments. The best way to take a great number of these animals at a time is to throw quickly on the plants of the meadows and lawns a cloth sack whose mouth is attached to a circle of iron, fixed at the end of a stick. By directing this instrument alternatively right and left, even the fleetest insect cannot get out, and all those that are caught by its movement, are driven to the bottom of the sack; they should be taken out one by one, either with the hand or pincers, and pierced immediately with a pin proportioned to the size of the animal. The coleopters should be pierced on the right wing (clytze), the hymenopters, dipters and lepidopters in the middle of the waist, the orthopters and nevropters a little behind, between the base of the wings.

For the small kinds, it is better not to fix them in this manner, and to preserve those whose shell is hard enough, the coleopters and the most part of hemipters, for example, it is sufficient to place them in little bottles or in flacks full of rolls of paper (or even cotton, if paper is wanting). This way is even applicable to the great kinds and should be employed when there is not time to impale with care the insects that are caught. The small kinds with soft shells should be preserved in alcohol for drying frequently deforms them to such a degree that they cannot be recognised. It is, also, in this liquor that the caterpillars should be preserved, as well as other larvæ, and it would be well to place with them a certain number of dried insects so that a part might be taken for anatomical researches.

Butterflies are taken by the aid of a gauze net or pocket. The insects are found chiefly in fields whose flowrs abound and on the leaves of trees; but they must be sought too in dark places, for, during the day, the night kinds are here asleep upon walls or the bark of trees. With a little skill, they can be pierced without seizing them before hand, and if there is fear of missing them thus, they should be covered whith the gauze pinews, through which the pin can be passed. When the air is calm and the night obscure, they can be easily taken by means of torches, for it is sufficient to place a light in a low and open place to attract a multitude of phalenes and other nocturnal insects. But to have handsome lepidopters, it is best to obtain caterpillars, feed them with the leaves of the plant on which they are found, and pierce the butterfly as soon as he has undergone his change, for the specimens caught in their flight are rarely fresh.

For the coleopters, it is not sufficient to beat the bushes and herbaceous plants, these insects should, also, be sought under the bark of trees, in the interior of mushrooms, under the stones and even in the soil: for this, it is well to be provided with a paring-knife, an instrument which is much like a carpenter's chisel, but which is slightly curved, and ends in a kind of pointed spatula.

Aquatic insects are taken by the help of a net like that used for insects of the air, but whose bag should be of canvass instead of cloth. In fine, to catch the hymenopters, whose sting is often formidable, it is necessary to have a pincers whose prongs are disposed like rackets and armed with coarse lace.

The preservation of insects that have been pierced requires some care; to prevent the lepidopters from injuring their wings in struggling, it is well, directly they are caught, to press the throat down; but, generally, it is necessary, on returning from the chase to kill quickly all the insects that have been caught, and, to attain this end, the best way is to place them dry in a tumbler surrounded with boiling water, for a high temperature kills them in a few minutes. The boxes designed for the reception of entomologic specimens should be of light wood, and, at least, two inches and a half deep; the bottom should be lined with cork or some other very soft vegetable substance and the pins should be pressed in as much as possible. When the insects are large, it is necessary, besides, to fix them by means of several pins placed around; for if one of them gets loose, he not only injures humself, but likewise damages all those whom he jostles. As soon as a box is full, and the insects dry enough, it should be shut and pasted with bands of paper on all the joints; but in warm countries, where destructive insects abound, this precaution is not sufficient; the boxes should, besides, be placed in a tin chest soldered on all sides.

Arachnides.—Animal of this class are less numerous than insects, but they merit the attention of travellers; certain kinds live in the water, but the greatest part are land animals, and live in shrubs or in holes, either in old walls, or in the ground The industry that many spiders display in the construction of their dwelling or the snares designed to catch their prey, is very remarkable: the nests of the mygales, for example, is very curious. It would be interesting to have a collection of threads spun by exotic spiders, and the preservation of these delicate tissues is easy enough, if they are spread out on a leaf of paper dipped in gum-water. It is perhaps superfluous to add that those specimens would have little value, unless each one is accompanied by the spider that belongs to it. In fine, we will point out to travellers the kinds reputed venemous, and those which live as parasites on other animals.

The preservation of the arachnides offer some difficulties; in drying, those animals lose their shape, and in alcohol, their colors; so it is necessary, as much as possible, to preserve specimens of the same kind by both these processes, and to take care to number them so that they may be easily identified.

Crustacees.—These animals are almost all aquatic and the greatest part in the seas. Crabs are found generally near the shore in the hollows of the rocks and under the stones; but there are kinds which hide in the sand or which live at great depths; some live entirely in the sea. It is the same for the decapodes macroures, such as the langoustes and the salicoes; and it is generally by the aid of drags and nets that they are taken; but a more successful way of fishing is to sink to the bottom an open case, a kind of basket whose mouth is in the form of a reversed cone; some carrion placed in the interior of this snare attracts the crabs, and when once in they cannot get out.

The small kinds of crevettines are found, in great abundance, in the midst of the sea-weed; and to catch them, it is necessary to place a certain quantity of marine plants in a vase full of sea-water: the little animals that are in it quickly exhaust the oxygen dissolved in this liquid and they rise to the surface where it is easy to take them with a spoon.

Other crustacees of small size are found in the deep sea and are taken in nets like the sea mollusques. Besides, there exist a great number of these animals, who live as parasits on fish (about the gills especially), and by a collection of them science would be enriched by a multitude of new and curious specific form. Until now travellers have almost entirely neglected the little crustacees of the order of the entomostracees, which are found in fresh water; and it is desirable that they should be collected in all localities.

The best means of preservation of the crustaces is to plunge them in alcohol from 20 to 25°, after having wrapped them in linen or leaves. The large kinds shall be dried, by taking care first to take out the viscera that are under the shell; but the crustacees preserved in this manner are extremely fragile and it is rare to preserve them entire.

Fish and reptiles.—Although among sea fish there are several kinds which are found in different coasts, the greatest number inhabit particular shores and gulfs. It would be useful then to send those that are found in countries not yet visited by naturalists and even the common market fish.

As for the fresh-water fish, they differ, not only according to the country, but according to the rivers and lakes where they live. It would be well to send all that can be found.

Generally, any fish brought from a foreign market, with the name that it bears in the country, would be an acquisition interesting for science.

They should be put in alcohol, or, if too large, only the skin well dried, taking care to preserve the head, teeth and fins. It is essential that the fins should be stretched out in order to dry them well. For this they should be glued on paper.

Reptiles should also be put in alcohol, even if their great size only permits thus to preserve the skin, which is much better than to send it dried. In skinning snakes, it is necessary to leave the head, and to take care not to injure the scales. Great care should be taken too not to break the tails of lizards.

It should be desirable to send the skeletons of fish and reptiles too large to be sent in spirits.

These skeletons need not be perfect. It is sufficient to take of the flesh, and, afterwards, to dry perfectly, without taking them to pieces. The whole skeleton should be placed in a box with cotton or with very dry and fine sand. If it is too long, it could be separated into two or three parts.

The following indications will point out the reptiles which, in the present state of science, would offer the greatest interest for the collections of the museum.

North America—Testudo polyphemus or Gopher.
Cistudo Blandingii, Holbrook.
Emys rubridentris, Leconte.
Emys floridaua, id.
Emys mobylensis, Holbrook.
Emys insculpta, Leconte.
Emys aregoniensis, Halbrook.
Emys hyeroglyphiea, Holbrook.
Emys cumberlandensis, id.
Emys conciuna, Leconte.
Emys troostii, Holbrook.
Emysaura serpentina, Dum. Bib. (large ones).
Chlonura temminckii, Holbrook (young and grown).
Trionyx muticus, (large ones).
Trionyx spiniferus, (large ones).

As much as possible some living specimens of each of these kinds, as well as of all the other chelonians; these reptiles, whose flesh is eaten, abound in the markets of the United States.

Rana mugiens or Bull-frog; (living subjects).

All the small kinds of lizards and serpents and all the batraciens urodeles, with persisting gills.

Rattle snakes from the south which differ from those of the north (in alcohol).

We have nothing or almost nothing in reptile from the Californio, Yutacan and Guatemala; boas, the crested basilic and the horrible heloderme, a great lizard with tuberculiform scales, should be sent us.

Antilles.—Cuba nourrishes a prodigious quantity of reptiles which are entirely unknown to us.

The museum possesses only some kinds of this class of vertebres from Jamaïca.

Birds and mammiferes.—The study of zoology in the Museum of natural history is not confined to the observation of the forms of animals, to the description of their organs; it proposes, besides, to examine their habits, their development, their instinct, and to see if they can be of any use. Formerly, nothing could be learnt of these essential objects but by the relations of travellers. Establishments formed at great expense by princes or rich amateurs to collect and take care of rare animals, were rather objects of luxury and curiosity than an object of study. But since we have had a menagerie at the museum, a new career of observation is open to naturalists. There, animals can be followed in all degrees of their developments, and their manner of living can be compared with their organisation, that anatomy discovers after death; positive knowledge, acquired on the so important phenomena of copulation, gestation, birth; the varieties which depend on age distinguished from those which are produced by climate, nourishment, by crossing races, and the difference determined which really exists between species. If these animals are of a nature to render services to domestic economy or agriculture, and if they breed there are the means to raise and domesticate them, and, so, to procure new resources. The Vigogne, the Lama, the Alpaca, the Tapir, the kanguroo, the Casoar and many others, will pershaps one day be very useful.

Considered with relation to science, there are few animals strangers to Europe which are not useful as a study. The history of the greatest part of them is yet very incomplete. That of the lion was not well known until after the lionness of the menagerie had whelps; it is also since two elephants have died ad the menagerie of the museum that an exact knowledge of the anatomy of this great quadruped has been acquired.

Travellers cannot be too strongly recommended to neglect nothing in order to send animals to us when they have it in their power to find them living.

The small quadrupeds, chiefly those that burrow and hide themselves in the ground are the least known. The bat tribe are still less so, and merit not less the attention and care of travellers.

Animals can easily be procured by applying to the natives of the country who know where they are to be found and frequently meet them. They can take them in snares and bring them in alive. It will not be more difficult for them to take in their early youth the quadrupeds whose lurking-places they know, and birds whose nets they have seen.

The younger the animals are, the easier it is to accustom them to live in cages. They will require, at first, particular care; it will be well to feed them for some weeks on shore before shipment, and too much pain cannot be taken to tame them. An animal that is not frightened at the sight of those who take care of him, is always in better health and resists more easily the fatigues of a sea-voyage than one who remains wild, and there is scarce any animal that does not yield to kind treatment.

Nourishment in excess, when they are shut up, and without the power of taking exercise, would be injurious. The surest way of keeping them is merely to give them what is necessary.

After a suitable nourishment, cleanliness is most necessary to them. Often, on shipboard, some one would be found who will take care of them, either for amusement or a slight remuneration. It is essential to take precautions to prevent the animals being teased and irritated by passengers.

As there are always difficulties in the transportation of living animals, there is an easier way whose results are more extended; that is the spoils of dead animals.

Quadrupeds can be procured either by sending hunters in the interior of the country, or by applying to the natives of the country.

They will content themselves with bringing the skin, the bony head and feet of the great animals that they have killed in places too remote to be preserved or transported entire.

The mammifers of a size small enough to be enclosed in a jar or cask, should be put in alcohol. Those that are too large to preserve in this manner should be skinned, and care should be taken to send with the skin the feet and head, with the brain taken out, or if that cannot be done, the jaws, at least, should be sent. In preparing the head, care should be taken not to damage the skull. The brain can be extracted with care without increasing the occipital hole.

We shall speak, further on, of the means to be employed and the precautions to be taken for the preservation of the skins and for that of animals placed in alchool.

When the skeleton of the animals can be joined to the skin, a great service will be rendered to science. The officers can entrust with this care the surgeons of the ships, for whom this operation will be easy.

It is not necessary that the skeletons should be set up. After having boiled the bones, taken of the flesh and dried them well, all those of the same animal should be put in a cloth-sack with moss, sea-weed, rolls of paper, or some other soft and dry matter that they may not rub one agains the other. Those that are very frail should be enveloped with paper and care should be taken not to lose any.

Hunters ought to take care to proportion their shot to the size of the birds, so as not to injure them. As soon as a bird is killed, the blood should be staunched as soon as possible, and a little cotton placed in the bill and nostrils of the bird, so that the blood that comes out may not injure the feathers, especially those of the head. If blood has been spilt on the feathers, dust should be put on them and renewed until they are dry; they can be made bright by rubbing them lightly between the fingers. After the bird is cold and the blood coagulated, it should be taken by the claws and tail, to place it in a bein of paper; these beins are arranged in a box, so that the feathers may not rub.

Birds should be skinned like quadrupeds, and care should be taken to preserve with the same precautions the bills and heads. Birds should be skinned more promptly than quadrupeds, because as soon as putrefactions begins, the feathers fall off. In opening the skin on the belly, care should be taken to separate the feathers so that they be not injured. Plaster or dust should always be put on the skin, in order to thoroughly absorb the moisture. The coccygis should be left with the skin; without this, the feathers of the tail are in danger of falling off. It will be the same with the bones of the extremities of the wings. If the bird has a fleshy crest, the head should be preserved in alcohol. When there are several specimens of the same class, it will always be useful to send one in this liquor.

It is desirable to procure, at the same time, the male and female, and specimens of the same kind, some young, others old, birds differing much according to their age. It is well to have also the eggs and nests. To preserve the eggs, a little hole is made at both ends, they are emptied and packed in bran or very fine dust. Care should be taken to indicate by numbers corresponding to those of the skin that laid them. Without this, these sorts of collections are useless. The same precaution should be taken with the nests, which should always be packed in a different box from the eggs.

The skeleton of birds too large to be put in liquor should be sent, if possible.

It is useless to stuff birds. They take up too much room; and this operation, which can only be well done by experienced persons, it is better to postpone till they arrive at the place of their destination. It is enough that the skins be prepared and well preserved.

After having pointed out, in a general manner, what would enrich our collections, we think it necessary to specify the animals, whose existence is known, which the museum is without, or has not in good order, or desires to procure.

North America.—All the mammiferes which resemble our mole preserved in alcohol.

The grizzly bear of the mountains; grown and young.
The empetra and all the marmots, especially the small kinds.
The different kinds of condylures.
The saccomys
The kinds pseudostoma and diplostoma of American naturalists.
The bearich porcupine, hedge-hog.
The lemming of Hudson's bay.
The wolf and carnivorous animals of the same region.
The antelope of the rocky mountains.
The mountain sheep.
The different kinds of foxes.
The ovibos or musk ox, an animal yet scarcely known in Europe

Labelling and packing collections.

It is desirable that each one of the animals sent as skin, skeleton, or in alcohol, should be accompanied by a note which indicates with precision:

The country where the animals is found;
Upon what it lives;
Its habits, if they are known;
Its common name;
If it is useful or otherwise;
The uses of its skins, flesh, grease, etc.;
Popular and superstitions opinions concerning it among the native of the
country;
Its sex and age, if these are known;
The season in which it has been taken.

These notes written in a little note-book should have each a number corresponding to that attached to the objects to which they relate.

That there may be no confusion with regard to the place where the objects and notes are deposited, it would be for the person who sends them to verify all the numbers and arrange them in such a manner that they form a series, so that it may be certain that such a butterfly belongs to such a crysalis, such a shell-fish to such a shell. These numbers shoul be written on parchment or squares of lead, attached with strong thread, either to skins inclosed in boxes or to jars or casks containing animals. It is easy to have the numbers distinctly marked on bits of lead; then they will be no uncertainly about the characters.

Thin pieces of tin can also be used with the numbers engraved with a steel-point and these can be attached to animals immersed in alcohol.

A little cord with knots should be attached to objects thus preserved and to those which are in bones and very dry. These knots form two series separated by an interval; the first series marks the 10^th, the second, the units; by this means any number can be specified. We even know by experience that the same of an object written with ink on a piece of parchment can be attached with a thread; alcohol does not alter it.

We have now to speak of the means of packing the objects of zoology, so that they may arrive in France in a better state of preservation.

Objects sent are either parts of animals, or entire animals preserved in alchool.

The skins of animals and birds may be attacked by Dermestes and other analogous insects, in warm countries especially, unless great care is taken to prevent it.

The surest means is to use the arsenic preservative known by the name of Becœur's soap.

This is the preservative employed in the museum and its success is certain. It is well to use it especially for rare and precious specimens, about whose preservation there is any cause of anxiety. It is wise to plaster the skins of birds with it, especially the claws and bill.

It is well, likewise, to plaster the naked parts of quadrupeds, such as the face and hands of apes.

Each bird or quadruped of small or middling size, thus prepared, and in the inside of which a little cotton is put, not to give it a form, but that the different parts of the skin need not touch, should be placed in a sack or enveloped in paper well closed, and these sacks should be ranged in a box, which should be well pointed, so that not only dampness but even air may be excluded.

The skins of large animals, too thick to be preserved by means of arsenical soap, should be rubbed whith salt. The skin of the animal should be stretched, covered carefully with salt within and without, and when, after several days it is sufficiently saturated, it should be folded with the epiderm inside, and put in a box, or simply wrapped in cloth, straw or any other dry substance, and keept as much as possible beyond the reach of dampness.

The means that we have pointed out are simple, easy and require little time.

We come now to the way of preserving animals in alcohol.

If they are quadrupeds, birds, reptiles or fish of considerable size, each specimen should be wrapped in linen tied round the body with thread; if the animals are very small like mice, small vipers, shell-fish or worms, the linen should be large; a certain number of these animals are placed upon it so that they do not touch; then the linen is rolled upon it self, so as to make a doll sowed with thread, that it may not unwind; afterwards, place the bundles side by side in a cask. When the cask is full, so that the bundles are packed close, it should be filled with brandy, rum or whiskey; generally some strong liquor; afterwards it should be pitched with care, so that the liquor may not escape. This method has two advantages: 1^o animals wrapped in linen cannot tear each other with their nails or spines; 2^o the linen having imbibed the alcohol, if the cask leakes, the animal will not be entirely dry; and when the casks are opened, as they should be several times on a long voyage, there be an opportunity of filling them again with alcohol.

The spirituous liquor be from 16 to 22° of the areometer of Baumé; stronger, it destroys the colors of animals; it is used at 22° only for mammifers. All spirituous liquor are equally good. The color less are preferable.

Before wrapping vertebrated animals in cloth, an incision should be made in the breast and abdomen, to let the liquor run in the inside of the body. The opening should be very small, in the side, and not in the middle. If the mammifers are large, it is well to pour the alchool in the intestinal canal, either by the mouth or anus.

It is well to renew the liquor, after the animal has remained in it some time: this precaution is absolutely necessary, when there is several animals in the cask; if it is neglected, they may corrupt.

It is well to arrange the animals so that they may not touch the bottom of the cask.

INSTRUCTION

RELATIVE

TO ZOOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

By M. ISIDORE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE.

Generation of the Pouch-Animals.—Mexico and expecially Brazil produce, as it is known, several varieties of the Marsupial Mammifers, all the family of the Didelphides, but some, such as the Didelphes, provided with a true pouch, other, such as the Micoures and the Hermiures, without pouch properly so called, doubtless it will be possible to procure live specimens of both sexes. We cannot too strongly urge the naturalist to neglect nothing to clear up the mystery, yet but partially penetrated, of the manner these mammifers reproduce kind. We are far indeed, from the period, when it was believed that the animals were formed at the dugs of their dams. The labors of Hunter, Home, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire de Blainville and other observers, have long since removed from science this inadmissible anomaly; some years ago, M. Owen, having the fortunate opportunity of examining the uterus of a female Kanguroo, that died in bringing forth, and of dissecting the embryo it contained has developped several facts of great interest.

But the intra-uterine gestation of the marsupials, and the second singular gestation peculiar to them, still remain new and important subjects of study for anatomy and comparative physiology. Animals or parts of animals sent in alcohol from America, the Indian Archipelago, or New-Holland, some cases of reproduction occuring in Paris and London, such are the imperfect elements which the French and English physiologists possess; their efforts to procure a certain number of specimens have always been unsuccessful. This determined Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to draw up in 1824, and the administration of the museum to send to all the countries where the Marsupials are found, detailed information on the state of the question at that time, and of the researches imperiously required by the wants of science from observers in those regions.

1^o If learned naturalists could send a series, so that the evolution of the ovula, the embryo, and the egg could be studied from its fecundation to its discharge from the uterus, they would thus supply Zootomists with all the elements of the great work we have just pointed out.

2^o To observe with care the circumstances of the passage of the fœtus to the vagina of the pouch.

3^o To describe in the most accurate manner the way the fœtus clings to the teat. They should determine this by observations of several specimens of different ages, and repeat, if possible, on the Didelphides, the curious experiments made by Collie and Morgan on the mammary fœtus of a Marsurpial of an entirely different family.

4^o To determine exactly and analyse the liquids contained in the breasts of the dam, and the digestive organs of the mammary fœtus.

5^o To examine in the living subjects the remarkable arrangement of the respiratory organs, discovered by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, which establish a connexion between the posterior nostrils and the cavity of the larynx.

We are entirely without notions concerning the abdominal folds, which, in this kind, take the place of the pouch, in a certain degree, and know nothing of the modifications these folds pass through in the different epochs of gestation.

Anthropology.—The countries to which these instructions are adressed to are doubtless among those where naturalists can collect the greatest number of interesting facts for this branch of natural history, formerly neglected and to which has been given, for some years past, an impulse worthy of its high importance. In Mexico and in the United States three of the principal human races are found together; the race peculiar to America, the Caucasian race from different countries of Europe, and the Ethiopian carried over in its train. All these races cross-breed, and from the crossing of the half-breeds with them and each other, result many curious combinations, whose scientific study is of the highest interest.

It has unhappily been, for a longtime, as difficult as it is important. If the plain and marked characteristics of the two animal species often disappear; if a skilful analysis, enlightened by direct comparison with analogous objects, can alone discover them, how can the anthropologist size between two neighbouring types, express and transmit by description, light, fleeting distinctions, some times invisible for him, who has not the habit of observing them?

Three inventions or new application, made almost simultaneously, have happily removed part of the great difficulties, and opened a new era in the natural history of man; the daguerreotype, which fixes and engraves with geometrical precision, the general shape of the body and the features of the face; the Cephalometer of Antelme M. D. which measures and sketches with a process almost as exact, the dimensions and forms of the head, and enables one to determine, as nearly as possible, the mean dimensions and typical form of the head of a people the sex and age: in fine, the perfection and happy application to anthropology of the process of moulding, performed directly, or by the aid of the ingenious physonotype of M. Sauvage; a process by which the whole head and, if necessary, the members of the body are preserved and placed before our eys.

We have the hope that, with the aid of the Daguerreotype and physionotype, the american naturalists will enrich anthropology with results of great interest. By photographic portraits, such as those presented to the Academy by M. Thiesson; by mouldings to be added to the fine collection made by M. Dumoutier, now in the museum; by colored drawnings, by descriptions and measures, they would transmit us information of extreme precision, true scientific elements, to which the committee would attach the greatest importance.

We think it our duty to direct the researches of the american naturalists, not only to the different varieties of the American race, but also to the half-breeds, yet so little known, of both, and, also, to the offspring of the crossing of the first with the Caucasian race. We request them, as soon as they shall have determined exactly the physical characteristics of these difficult varieties, to neglect no information that may enlighten us as to their intellectual capacity.

We would, likewise, entreat these gentlemen to specify exactly and express by colored drawnings done with care, the different states of the hues of the American races and half-breeds, from the moment of their birth up to the period that they arrive at the normal color of their kind.

We would desire them, besides, to collect, of these same races, their half-breeds, and the white race, more minute particulars than as yet obtained, on the duration and difficult phases and epoch of puberty.

Chemistry and agriculture.—These are the principal forms that allow the use of Caoutchouc without dissolving it and without altering the heat.

1^o Straight tubes; elbowed tubes; tubes in T of different thickness and diameter;

2^o Full cylinders, to be cut in France as wanted;

3^o Rectangular plates, cut in France;

4^o Caps to cork bottles and flasks.

It would be desirable to examine, in an economical point of view, the question of the preparation of preserved sugar, transportable to France, and giving, by a simple preparation, elastic caoutchouc/

Dye woods and other vegetable products.—Details on the working of dye woods, their qualities, uses, marks, would be interesting for technology.

It would not be less useful to send samples, branches, leaves and flowers of the usual plants, whose products are or may be applied to tanning; the extraction of oils, etc.

Remains of animals.—It is known that domestic animals, transported by Europeans to America, have multiplied and spread. It results from this that products which in Europe and particulary in France, are needed by agriculture and the different acts, are in great part lost in Brazil and several countries of south America. To send them to France or our colonies should be prepared:

1^o For manure, blood coagulated by heat or lime, and dried;

2^o For nourishment or manure, dried flesh;

3^o Intestines prepared and dried which, blown up, might be employed to hold and preserve aliments which might be utilised as primary matters for different fabrications, such as for harmonic chords, whip cords, rattles, machines, gold beaters skin and cartridge paper; applications which one of the committee, M. Payen, discovered, by and which would employ all the remains of intestines useless for the usage we have described;

4^o Tendons for glue factories.

There are other animal remains whose use has been long appreciated, horns, and feet, and skins. But the transportation of the first might be rendered less expensive by first pressing them down, and the last are, as it is known, often attacked on shipboard by insects. To prevent these injuries so hurtful to commerce the employment of different substances should be tried such as pyroligneous acid, the chloride of lime, the bichloride of mercury.

If naturalists wish to try these different processes, we doubt not that merchants, for whom this question is one of great interest, will assist their experiments by all the means in their power.

An appeal is likewise made to agriculturits for seed of north American forest trees.