256 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



day until the specimens are thoroughly dry and no longer moist or 

 cold to the touch. The drying usually occupies from a week to ten 

 days, but varies according to the succulency of the plants, the state of 

 the weather, the frequency of the changes, and the degree of heat of 

 the driers. The most convenient place for changing plants, if it can be 

 managed, is a table beside a guod hot range or stove, the top of which 

 is free for use. If a damp drier be laid flat on the hot metal, steam at 

 once begins to rise from it, and the moment it ceases to do so the 

 paper is dry ; leave it for a second until it becomes so hot as to be barely 

 touchable with the naked hand, then lay it quickly on a specimen 

 previously moved from the damp pile, and continue thus until the 

 whole lot is changed. This plan is invaluable when driers are scarce, 

 as sometimes happens on a botanizing trip, for by it the same driers, no 

 matter how wet, can be used again immediately. A plan adopted by 

 myself and Professor Macoun a few years ago, while collecting in Nova 

 Scotia, might be mentioned as worthy of remembrance should any of 

 you ever be placed in similar circumstances. Though not to be 

 recommended for common use, as the specimens fall short of those 

 obtained by the ordinary method, yet, if so situated that an abundance 

 of driers is not obtainable, or if the weather be so foggy and wet that they 

 cannot be properly dried, it will be found of great practical value. On 

 the trip referred to, a large number of specimens had been collected, but 

 so bid was the weather from rain and sea fogs that there was great 

 danger of losing them all. Under these circumstances the thought 

 occured to take advantage of occasional glimpses of sunshine in the 

 following way; each sheet of specimens was placed between two driers, 

 which were spread in a single layer on the floor of an open balcony 

 exposed to the sun. Pieces of board, logs, or bark placed in the sun 

 would of course answer the same purpose as did the balcony. Small 

 stones placed on the corners of the sheets prevented the wind disturbing 

 them, and no pressure was used except the weight of the single drier 

 them coveting. An hour of good sunshine served to fully cure most plants. 

 The plan, is only applicable to specimens previously somewhat wilted in 

 the pressas the leaves of fresh or insufficiently wilted ones curled up in 

 the absence of pressure. 



