NEW METHOD OF DRYING SPECIMENS OF PLANTS. 415 



cure finer specimens by this method than by any other with 

 which I am acquainted, I feel desirous of making it public 

 for the benefit of otiier botanists. The only apparatus neces- 

 sary is half a ream, or a ream of brown paper, and a quire 

 of double-crown cap paper. I have found that size com- 

 monly called "royal," to be the most useful size for the 

 brown paper ; it should be tolerably smooth, and that of the 

 weight of about fifty-five pounds per ream will be the best 

 thickness. The cap paper should be rather porous in its 

 texture, and not too thick. It may be cut into half-sheets, 

 and each of these may be folded. The plan of proceeding will 

 then be this : — First, lay down upon a board or table a quire 

 of the brown paper ; lay upon it one of the folded half-sheets 

 of cap paper, between which the plant is to be laid out 

 in the usual way ; then place over it half a quire of the 

 brown paper, and then another half- bheet of cap paper, with 

 a plant in it, then another half^ quire of brown, and so on till 

 all the specimens are laid in. (Unless the specimens are 

 very large, several might be laid between each half-quire.) 

 Finally, place the remainder of the brown paper on the top 

 of the stack. Should the number of specimens requiring to 

 be dried at one time be very great, it may perhaps be suf- 

 ficient to lay a quarter of a quire between the specimens; 

 but I should give the preference to half a quire. The time 

 which specimens will require to dry on this plan will of course 

 vary according to the nature of the plants, and the dryness of 

 the weather ; but in general a week will be sufficient in tolera- 

 bly fine weather. The great advantage in this plan appears to 

 me to be this : — the brown paper being very flexible in every 

 direction, exerts an equal pressure on every part of the plant 

 to be pressed, while in the common way of drying plants 

 (a board being used to give the principal pressure), consider- 

 able force is exerted on the prominent and more elevated 

 parts of a specimen, such as the stem, &c., while the leaves 

 and thinner parts frequently shrivel in many plants, the thick- 

 ness of the stem, &c. preventing an adequate pressure from 

 being applied to them. This I have frequently found to be 

 the case in plants with a woody stem, as Bidens tripartita, 

 Senecio Jacohcea, and aquaticus, Pteris aquilma, Fmpato^ 

 rium cannabinum, &c. &c. By the above method these dif- 

 ficulties are completely obviated. 



Your obedient Servant, W. N. 



Note on Mr. Blyth's Paper, p. 370 of this Number. 



It is probable that the Brooksian Gnoo will prove to be the Wadau of 

 Capt. Lyon C Travels in North Africa/ pp. 70, 271), who mentions a chain 

 of mountains to the south of Fezzan of that name, " on account of the im- 

 mense number of Buffaloes to be found there, and which are of three spe- 



