BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 345 



He writes, in a letter from Santa Catalina de Guarsa (Cuba), May, 



1857: 



" Allow me to suggest that you alter your directions* for collecting 



plants in one particular, and substitute for the tin box or vasculum, one 

 or two portfolios that will hold each four to six quires of thin, firm paper. 

 I have tried both methods, and, without wishing to arrogate to myself 

 superior knowledge or skill, I am perfectly satisfied that one who col- 

 lects with portfolios can do more and better work by one-third than he 

 who collects with a tin box. Any person who collects a large-flowered 

 Convolvulus in a tin box, and who succeeds in making even a tolerable 

 specimen of the flower, has a greater stock of patience than I can 

 boast of. In another particular I think your directions capable of im- 

 provement. Instead of pressing my specimens on the outside of the 

 sheets of paper, I put my specimens within a sheet of paper, one or 

 two, if large, and many, if small, and never move them from within that 

 sheet till they are dry. .Thus then there is no risk of breakage, which 

 will inevitably happen in some cases during the process of drying, if 

 they are removed from one paper to another, especially such as are resi- 

 nous or milky. I have also used during the past winter a very thin 

 paper of small size for the collection of Mosses, Hepaticce, and other 

 very small or delicate plants, and have found it very convenient. I 

 could thus keep perfectly distinct twenty or thirty species of these 

 little plants, besides gathering four or five quires-full of larger plants in 

 a day's excursion ; I cannot imagine how I could have done it with a 

 vasculum. I carry, in my portfolio, a piece of thin India-rubber cloth 

 for its protection in case of rain. 



" I also employ a peculiar method for making handsome specimens 

 of such succulent plants as Port?dacacea, Piperacece, Orchids, etc., 

 though it may be no new thing to others. As soon as possible after 

 such plants are collected, I pass over them a hot flat-iron, thus par- 

 tially scalding them ; they then dry rapidly ; the parts adhere together 

 as well as any plants, and they preserve almost entirely their colour ; 

 some do so perfectly. I would advise a collector, especially one going 

 to tropical countries, to provide himself for this object with a plate of 

 copper half an inch thick, of convenient size, round, or square, or ob- 

 long. I would prefer copper, because it retains its heat much longer 



* This alludes to "Directions" printed and circulated by the Royal Gardens of 

 Kew, for the use of travellers and those herborizing in distant countries. 



VOL. IX. 3 Y 



