Volume lo Number i 



The Plant World 



SI iflap^tne of (General ^otanp 



i^- 



\ 



JANUARY, 1907 Jui LIIRARY 



THE CAMERA IX BOTANICAL WORK. \>v;?^-^^V<> 



By Benjamin W. Brown, M.D., 

 U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. 



The many articles which have appeared of late in the magazines 

 on the application of photography to the study of nature show- 

 that the camera is doing a good work, for any means that will 

 bring man into a closer relation with the beauties and wonders 

 of nature is a benefit to mankind. The application of the science 

 of photography for recording one's observations during rambles 

 in the woods and fields involves nothing new, as far as the chem- 

 istry of photography is concerned : but it brings into play me- 

 chanical skill and ingenuity, which are shown in the various 

 appliances and suggestions used to overcome the mechanical diffi- 

 culties which are encountered in attempting to fix nature on a 

 gelatine plate. The object of this article is to give a practical and 

 fascinating method for using the camera in the study of botany. 



In order to photograph wild flowers in all their native beauty 

 and freshness, the work must be done as soon as possible after 

 plucking them ; in fact, in many cases the photograph must be 

 made on the spot. Hence the necessity for an appliance for field 

 work ; and as specimens can only be obtained by tramps " over 

 the hills and far away," it behooves one to invent, not only the 

 most practical appliance, but the most compact one, for the 

 smaller the load, the oftener and farther w'ill be the rambles afield. 

 The following method, which I have successfully used for the 

 past five years, will, I am sure, lessen the burden and add to the 

 pleasure of the botanist. 



