I own a Kobo e-reader, and occasionally download books for it that I find online (I am currently using Linux Mint 17 with Firefox as a browser.
When I try to download a book in the epub format, it simply opens in the browser, and does not seem to offer any option whereby I could transfer it to the Kobo.
I am sure there is a solution—I just can't seem to see it!
Thanks.

Was it working at one time but has stopped working? Maybe it is as simple as using "save as" and saving it to your Kobo.
Does you Kobo mount automatically when you plug it in?

Sounds like a F/F preferences issue - check the epub association under "Applications".

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The Kobo screen asks whether I want to mount, where the Kindle I used to have mounted automatically.
The problem with Epub format documents applied to the Kindle also.
I am running Firefox 47; I see no Epub association under Applications.

However, the last comment finally made me wake up and realize that there are other browsers. I opened the same site with Opera, and on attempting a download, was presented with the choice of saving the file or opening it at once, so my problem clearly has to do with FF preferences.

In a way, my problem is solved—but I'll leave this thread open for another day in case anyone mentions how to tweak Firefox.
Thanks!

I'm also using Linux Mint 17 (17.3 KDE) with Firefox 47.0 and when I click on an epub (for example, the epub link at https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lawrence/dh/l41a/), I get the open/save dialogue.

What the difference is between our setups is that you may well have a plugin/extension that allows Firefox to display epubs in the browser window (and somehow this is set to automatically do so). You should have a look at your plugin list and extension list to see if there is anything there that might be handling ebooks.

Anyway, if the epub displays in the browser, you may well be able to use File->Save Page as (I know, sorry, I'm a guy who still uses the traditional menu, you can also use ctrl-s) to save it as a file. That works for pdfs, so maybe worth a shot.

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I looked into this, and it seems F/F can't recognise the mime type for epub (application/epub+zip), so it throws its hands in the air. Same for malformed webpage - moz support attitude is "nothing we can do". I also get the open/save dialog, but note you don't get the option to tick the "always do this" box. That's F/F telling you the mime is unknown.

As noted, other browsers seem to make some more effort.

Maybe (for the OP) F/F is using the (Linux) default handler - what does this return (if anything) ?.

And there we are: a plug-n called Lucifox, that I had completely forgotten I had ever installed.
I told it not to open epubs by default, restarted Firefox, and it did a download quite happily.Many thanks!