THE NATURALIST. 



A BOTANICAL TOUR IN HEREFORDSHIRE, MONMOUTHSHIRE, 

 AND SOUTH WALES, 



WITH INCIDENTAL NOTICES OF THE SCENERY, ANTIQUITIES, &C. 



By Edwin Lees, F. L. S., F. E. S. L., &c. 

 (Continued from Vol. I., p. 269.) 



Having now reached Swansea, and arrived in the centre of a good sporting 

 district, it may perhaps be as well to give a few hints as to the collecting and 

 preservation of plants for the herbarium. Such hints would have been extremely 

 useful to me some years ago, and would have saved me the destruction of many 

 a fine specimen ; — to the young and inexperienced collector, therefore, they may 

 be found of advantage. The value of an herbarium of course depends upon the 

 state of the specimens in it, for if the majority of these are broken, mildewed, 

 injured, or decayed, however rare some of them may be, they exhibit no character 

 to be depended on, and, like a defaced coin or a black silhouette, present a very 

 slight resemblance to the objects they were intended to represent. It is obvi- 

 ously, therefore, of the first importance to preserve plants in as perfect a state as 

 possible. A tin box has been very generally recommended as an indispenable 

 accompaniment to the botanist, and the dimensions of such an appendage are 

 carefully defined by Dr. Withering. For my own part, I have long discarded 

 the tin box, as disagreeable and vexatious. For, to say nothing of the undignified 

 aspect it gives the botanist of a dealer in lollipops, if any quantity of plants 

 should be met with, Thistles and Roses — Ferns and Nymphules (" Water Lilies"), 

 Carices and OrcMdece, have all to be compressed into the "same unmanageable 

 space ; and if, at the close of a weary day's ramble, the ai'rangement of the plants 

 collected is put off till the following day, ten to one but the greater part of the 

 specimens are spoiled, damaged, or entirely useless. 



A folio cover, made after the manner of a scrap-book, with cartridge paper 

 leaves, and what binders term " guards," I find by far the most convenient re- 

 ceptacle for the intended gems of the herbarium, whether Ferns, Mosses, tender 

 or herbaceous plants be collected, and this, enclosed in a green leather case, offers 

 no inconvenience in carrying, and conceals all those unsightly culms, stalks, and 

 awns, which, sometimes jutting out from the pockets or buttoned -up coat of a 

 collector, might almost suggest to a non-botanical eye the idea of a walking 

 No. 9, Vol. II. r 



