Rbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 13. 
June, 1911. No. 150. 
AMATEUR BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATING. 
AGNES CHASE. 
Ir has recently been represented to the writer that botanists in 
general are unaware of the fact that it is not necessary to be an artist 
or even to have any artistic ability in order to prepare botanical illus- 
trations, and it has been’ suggested that I (myself an evidence of this 
fact) tell others how it may be done. 
The camera lucida, the reliance of most amateur illustrators, I 
never found satisfactory, for, if it is used with any object except the 
thinnest, the image is badly distorted. The simple method by which 
anyone, willing to take pains, may make accurate detail drawings is 
this: The object to be drawn is placed on a dissecting microscope, 
on a glass slide ruled in millimeter squares. The drawing paper is 
very lightly ruled in pencil in squares of the proper size to give the 
enlargement desired, in centimeters for an enlargement of 10 diameters, . 
5 millimeters for 5 diameters, etc. The object is then copied in out- 
line, square for square, a hard pencil being used. This insures accuracy 
of outline after which details within can with care be correctly drawn. 
In preparing for dissection and drawing portions of dried specimens, 
such as the spikelets of grasses, heads of Eriocaulon, and Compositae, 
involucres of Euphorbia and flowers of Labiatae, glycerin will be found 
a valuable aid. "These parts soaked or boiled in water alone, or soaked 
in alcohol or potash if of indurated texture, dry out so rapidly under 
the microscope that they are difficult to work with and change shape 
so continually that only a “lightning artist” could keep up with them. 
If boiled in water with a little glycerin these parts become pliable 
and can be dissected and displayed without tearing them. One does 
not have to work with needles or scalpel in a puddle of water, the 
