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PHYTOLQGY. 



SOME HINTsS ON THE PORMATION OP A HERBARIUM. 



f" N these days of universal diffusion of knowledge, it may seem 

 ■*■ unwarrantable to assume that there are still some to whom 

 the modes of studying Natural Science in any of its branches are 

 yet more or less unknown, and that would be willing to make use 

 of any hints relating to such studies. But, though there is no 

 longer need to defend these pursuits from the charges formerly so 

 frequently brought against them of uselessness, or to apologise for 

 venturing to interest oneself in them, there is considerable miscon- 

 ception in the minds of many in regard to them ; and it becomes 

 the votaries of such studies to guard against errors gaining sway. 

 Too often it seems to be thought that the study of Science can be 

 carried on in a desultory way, and that it is not necessary to do more 

 than skim the surface to gain all that can be learned. But a little 

 experience teaches distrust of the claims to knowledge advanced by 

 those that trust to what can be picked up from books instead of 

 as the result of their own labour — slowly gained it may be, but, 

 once gained, not likely to be readily lost. The trite saying that 

 there is no royal road to learning is not less applicable to scientific 

 studies than to other departments of human knowledge ; and from 

 none are these studies more in danger of injury than from the 

 dilettante student, by whose errors and pretended acquire- 

 ments discredit is liable to be brought upon them in the general 

 estimation. 



To benefit, as all may, by such studies requires that there must 

 be no disposition to shrink from the details of work, irksome it 

 may be at times, and yet perhaps by reason of the care and atten- 

 tion needed for its performance, a most valuable part of the train- 

 ing to be gained by the true worker. It is with the hope of clearing 

 some difficulties from the path of such students of Nature, and of 

 possibly directing their view to points that are too often overlooked, 

 that the writer ventures to offer some remarks here on what may 

 be learned from a carefully prepared herbarium, such as may be 



