THE PLANT WORLD 63 



car.iy a hand-press, with a full outfit of driers, boards and straps, over 

 hills and mountains, ten, twenty, and thirty miles a da}', Avearing heavy 

 cavalry boots as a defense against snakes. Mere physical exertion I 

 counted as nothing, n(^r the time and care needful for making good 

 specimens. It was all what Professor Gray termed "conscientious 

 work." The method of preparing specimens which I ad^dsed in the 

 American Naturalist is doubtless productive of best results, but after 

 leaving Virginia I never again carried a press, except in special cases. 

 That method is not adapted to the malarious Gulf States, where there 

 is no shade except in the shadows of pine trunks and in thickets that 

 teem with red- bugs. 



Before pursuing the subject further, I will observe that the ideas 

 which I have to offer w^ere suggested by Professor W. W. Bailey's book 

 on "Botanizing." I bought this book on the supposition that- it em- 

 bodied all the knowledge of all the ages on the subject of herborizing, 

 and read it with eager interest, hoping to learn something that might 

 piove of service to me, yet fearing to discover that I had lost much in 

 the past through ignorance of the best methods. Both my hopes and 

 fears were dispelled, and I was left to deplore the author's decision, 

 on reaching page 87, to dispense with further advice in regard to field 

 work, for the reason that it "would cumber our pages." Being thus 

 apprised that the author knows a good deal besides v/hat he has told, 

 I should disclaim any pretention to superior knowledge of his subject, 

 and should further acknowledge that our differences of opinion may be 

 due to mistaken ideas on raj part. At any rate, I will not pose as an 

 ad\dser, saying do so and so, or it should be done so and so, but will 

 merely say that I do so and so, generally giving my reasons, and some- 

 times referring to Professor Bailey's omissions and different ideas. 



My outfit for collecting is wholly different from that described in 

 "Botanizing." I do not even carry a vasculum nor care for "capacious 

 pockets," my two hip-pockets being the only ones commonly used. 

 "Stout leather gloves" would make me smile, but they are well enough 

 for men who wish to keep their hands delicate. It tires me to think of 

 carrying a knapsack, canteen, trowel, pruning shears, cane, and the 

 like. I need no cane, because something better can be found almost 

 anywhere in a sapling or fallen branch; no tags for marking, because I 

 j)refer the woodsman's methods of marking localities; no note-book and 

 pencil, because I can remember everything until ready to put my speci- 

 mens in press; no drinking water, because I have formed the habit, for 

 prudential reasons, of not getting thirst}^ when in the wilds. 



It is evident, therefore, that the articles I do carry can be quickly 

 enumerated; but it is not easy to describe my substitute for a vasculum 

 and explain its merits. It is simply that well-known and everywhere 



