EXPLOEATOET NOTICES FOE APEIL. 



The Botanical Explorator commences his labours in 

 earnest this month, and hence, perhaps, it may be 

 advantageous to the neophyte, to give him an idea of 

 the apparatus he should be furnished with. A tin box, 

 orvasculum, has been generally recommended for put- 

 ting plants into when gathered, but though this is 

 convenient enough for Mosses and Fungi, Jungerman- 

 nice, MarcJiantice, or any succulent plants, it is not well 

 adapted for the preservation of delicate flowers with 

 others of a coarser nature, especially if any number 

 be collected, for the whole must then be pressed and 

 jammed together in one heterogeneous mass. A large 

 vasculum. may indeed be obtained, but the appearance 

 of this thrown over the shoulder is rather inelegant, 

 and subjects the wearer to the supposition of his being 

 a dealer in lolipops ! I have therefore long laid the 

 tin box aside, with the exception above adverted to, 

 and in its stead I recommend a folio or quarto blank 

 book of cartridge, brown, or thick cap paper, to be 

 carried. This should have interspersed within it a 

 number of what bookbinders term "guards," which 

 will allow of many plants being placed within the book 

 without increasing its thickness. Its cover may be of 

 green canvass, roan of any colour, or simply half- 

 bound, according to individual taste. For mountain 

 excursions I have found an external cover of polished 

 black leather very useful in case of rainy weather. It 



