116 A BOTANICAL TOUR. 



Priapus.* One great advantage of this plan is, that the specimens may remain 

 between the cartridge paper uninjured for some days, which, in a wild tract where 

 there is no convenience for arranging them, is an object. But besides the case I 

 have mentioned, I would strenuously recommend a smaller one fitted to an inner 

 pocket, for peculiar rarities, and the more delicate flowers, since every practical 

 collecting botanist well knows, that specimens placed casually in an old memo- 

 randum-book in the pocket, where they have remained for some time unthought 

 of, have retained their characters and colours in far greater perfection than many 

 which had undergone sand-baking secundum artem, or been shifted day after day 

 from paper to paper, at a vain expense of time and patience. As the sooner a 

 plant can be divested of its juices after gathering the better, whenever time will 

 allow, an hot iron carefully applied upon several thicknesses of paper, will make 

 sure work, and indeed in the Sedums and OrchidecB is indispensable. I have spe- 

 cimens of both beautifully retaining their original colours done in this way, but 

 some practice is required in applying the requisite degree of heat, which must be 

 moderate upon the flowers. It is also a good plan, when changing the papers of 

 plants, to heat them as much as they will bear without scorching, before a good 

 fire, laying the plants down quickly upon the heated paper, the result of which 

 process, perseveringly continued, will have the best effect. After all, however, 

 disappointment will often ensue, especially with blue flowers, though I have Cam- 

 panulas, hastily gathered with rubbish and dry leaves, which, without attention, 

 have retained their beautiful blue tints for years. It must also be borne in mind, 

 that the herbarium itself must not be left to its fate in a damp room, or one in 

 which the genial blaze never appears, for if so, mildew will soon gather, defacing 

 and rendering almost nugatory the incessant labours of former years. But enough 

 of the closet — the practical botanist can only be fully at home " abroad in the 

 meadows," and while a ray of light lingers in the horizon, I must improve it. 



Day set o'er Swansea's castled steep, as I entered the Mackworth Arms, but 

 I instantly hurried down to the sandy shores of the bay. The evening was low- 

 ering, gloomy clouds hung low upon the ocean, amidst which the Mumbles light 



* Though the collecting botanist may not indeed become literally a scare-crow, yet he will 

 hardly fail to scare many an ass, wondering what he can want with thorns and thistles. I have 

 known some botanists stuff' their hats with plants; but then it becomes somewhat awkward to lift 

 up the hat without seeming to have assumed the delphic laurel without leave of Apollo, or at any 

 rate to be preparing to say with Horace — 



** Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto, 



Aut flore, terrae quem ferunt solutse." 



Now verdant myrtle in our shining hair, 



Or earth-born flowers appropriately we wear. 



