equally as attractive as the display type, but it also permits the collector to locate any specimen quickly and add new material with a minimum of rearranging. The simplicity, uniformity and mobility of equipment, such as drawers, trays, labels and vials, and the use of the biological or systematic order of arrangement are the essence of a good collection.
The choice of cabinet and style of drawers will be limited, of course, by the collector’s pocketbook. The accompanying designs are the result of many years of observing private and institutional cabinets, and they are offered here as an ideal toward which you can strive.
If the cabinet is made in a roughly oblong shape and is about table-height, additional cabinets may some day be set alongside for desk space or set on top of each other without causing the top drawers to be too high to reach. Pine, basswood or any of the whitewoods may be used. It has been reported that certain oaks have a detrimental effect on shells which have been stored away for years. It is best to have a cabinet door which swings open all the way (180 degrees), although so hinged that the drawers may still be pulled out when it is open only 90 degrees. Some students prefer the type of door which lifts off.
The ideal cabinet unit has the following dimensions: outside measurements, height 40″ (or 80″), width 22″, depth 32″. Runners for drawers, 30″ long. If wooden, 1⁄2″ × 3⁄8″ and set 21⁄4″ apart. If galvanized sheet iron, 21⁄2″ wide and bent along the midline to form an L. Inside measurements, wooden drawers 20″ × 30″ and 15⁄8″. No runners or handles are necessary on the drawers.
All cardboard trays to hold specimens should be 3⁄4″ in depth, and all their other outside dimensions should be multiples of the smallest type of tray. This unit may be 11⁄2″ × 2″, the next largest tray 3″ × 2″, then 3″ × 4″, then 41⁄2″ × 6″, and the largest of all 8″ × 9″. It is inadvisable to have more than five sizes of trays, since this complicates curating and the making or ordering of future stocks. Odd-sized trays make neat arrangement impossible. Cardboard trays covered with glossy-white enameled paper may be purchased in any large city, or a simple style may be made by cutting out and folding pieces of shirtboard as shown in our illustration. The corners are held together by adhesive paper or butcher’s tape. The various sets, or lots as they are called, of each species should be placed in the trays and arranged in the drawer from left to right, beginning at the front. Many students separate the species or genera by turning over an empty box which may bear a label indicating the genus or species.
Small glass vials without necks are used to hold smaller specimens. Cotton is best for plugging the vials, since corks are expensive, are difficult to obtain for various-sized vials and eventually deteriorate. When a lot consists of a hundred or more small specimens which will not easily go into vials, it is
