PREFACE. #.. 
scarcely have too many duplicates, especially when his explorations are made 
in a little-frequented district. Many collect much more extensively. 
6. The collector should be provided with :— 
1. A quantity (at his discretion) of any stout, coarse, unsized paper, of uniform 
dimensions, say 12 inches by 18. Old newspapers answer the purpose; and 
common packing paper, whity-brown, or brown, is most excellent. Blotting 
paper is much too tender and expensive. 
2, Asmaller quantity of very thin, unglazed paper, or chemist’s filtering paper 
(for drying plants with delicate corollas, see No. 15). 
3. Several flat, perforated boards, the size of the paper. Open wooden frames, 
with cross-bars, or frames of strong wire-work lattice, are better than boards, as 
they permit a freer evaporation. 
4. A light portfolio of pasteboard, covered with calico, fitted up with 12-20 
leaves of strong brown paper, furnished with a strap and buckle for closing, and 
another for slinging over the shoulders, is better and more portable than the old- 
fashioned collecting-box. The specimens, as gathered, are placed between the 
leaves, and may be crowded together, if not left too long without sorting. 
5. A bag or haversack is also useful for collecting rigid-leaved or shrubby plants 
that might injure those in the portfolio. 
7. Ifthe plants be gathered in dry weather, no time should be unnecessarily 
lost in placing them under pressure ; but if they must be kept over, they may 
be preserved, for a day or two, if sprinkled with water, and enclosed in a tin 
box kept in a cool situation. 
8. On returning from the field, sort the specimens into those that are fleshy 
or juicy, and those that are of a drier nature, and dry them in separate bundles. 
If mixed together, the former are very apt to injure the latter, and to retard 
their drying. 
9. The drying process is as follows :—Take one of the flat boards or frames, 
and lay three or four sheets of the drying paper upon it. On these lay speci- 
mens, placing them as closely as they will lie without overlapping each other. 
Cover the specimens with a similar layer of paper ; and on this lay other spe- 
cimens ; repeating alternately a layer of paper and of specimens, till you have 
either placed in paper all the specimens collected, or made a sufficiently thick 
pile. Cover the pile with one of the flat boards, and place upon it a heavy weight, 
—large stones or bags of sand answer perfectly. If travelling, leather straps 
and buckles, drawn tightly across the bundle, are used instead of weights. 
10. After the specimens have lain a day under pressure, the paper about 
them must be removed, and dry papers substituted ; and this process should 
be repeated at intervals of a day or two till the plants are perfectly dry. If 
many sheets of paper be placed between each layer of specimens, or if open 
frames be used instead of boards, the changes need not be so frequent. In 
changing it is not necessary to lift every specimen from the sheet on which it 
lies; but if a dry sheet be placed over the specimens, the latter, with the moist 
sheet, may be tilted over to the dry, and the moist sheet then removed, and this 
process repeated through the bundle. Much time and trouble may thus be 
saved. 
