318 Transactions. — Botany. 



Origin of the New Zealand Fauna and Flora, 1884. (Cap- 

 tain Hutton.) (New Zealand Journal of Science, vol. ii.) 



Reports of the " Challenger " : Botany, vol. i., 1885. (W. 

 Botting Hemsley.) 



Island Life (2nd ed.), 1892. (Wallace.) 



Catalogue of Marine Algas collected near Port Philip 

 Heads, 1892. (Bracebridge Wilson.) (Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. iv., part 2.) 



A Provisional List of the Marine Algae of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, 1893. (Ethel S. Barton.) (Journal of Botany, 

 vol. xxxi.) 



On some Marine Algae from New Zealand, 1893. (R. J. 

 Harvey Gibson.) (Journal of Botany, vol. xxxi.) 



A Comparison of the Marine Floras of the warm Atlantic, 

 Indian Ocean, and the Cape of Good Hope, 1893. (G. 

 Murray.) (Phycological Memoirs, part ii.) 



Abt. XXXVIII. — On the Preparation and Preservation of 



Botanical Specimens. 



By T. Kirk, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Nelson Philosophical Society, 5th November, 1894.] 



Although the process of drying plants for the herbarium is 

 simple and inexpensive, it is no uncommon thing to find 

 collections of specimens which are almost worthless for 

 critical examination owing to the imperfect manner in which 

 they have been prepared. In others the specimens are of 

 little value owing to their fragmentary character. Culms of 

 grasses without leaves, sedges destitute of fruits, the staminate 

 flowers of a Goprosma without the pistillate, or the pistillate 

 without the staminate, are of but little use to any one desirous 

 of gaining a thorough knowledge of the plants under ex- 

 amination. Yet again, even well-selected and carefully-dried 

 specimens, if without labels stating the locality in which each 

 was gathered, are of no value to the student who desires to 

 become acquainted with their geographical distribution. It 

 may therefore be worth while to describe the simple ap- 

 paratus required, and indicate the chief points which should 

 receive attention in the preparation and preservation of 

 herbarium specimens, although it is not easy to say anything 

 now on a subject of this description. 



