82 THE PLANT WOKLD 



tliem so many driers that the leaves at least will be quite dry when 

 the press is next opened. In bending tall and rigid stems to sharp 

 angles, I first mash them at the proper points with the back of my 

 knife in order to prevent their breaking. Before pressing a bunchy 

 specimen, like Rhus copalliua, I thin the leaves and the panicle or thyr- 

 sus, leaving enough of the petioles to show the positions of the leaves 

 removed. The specimens then dry better, look better, mount better, 

 and can be more effectually poisoned. 



I cannot account for Professor Bailey's statement that presentable 

 specimens of most ferns can be obtained only by using the portfolio. I 

 have always regarded ferns as requiring no more care than lycopods, 

 provided the thin ones are kept damp. I know of no fern that may not 

 be gathered and pressed at leisure unless there are young and tender 

 fronds, which, as a rule, should not appear in specimens. Those ferns 

 which, like Gheilanthes, become dry and crisp in dry weather, unless 

 collected in damp weather, should be plunged in water or heavily sprin- 

 kled and left in a box over night to straighten out. 



The hand-press or portfolio is particularly adapted to Malvaceae, 

 Legiiminosae, Onagraceae, and Acanthaceae. The latter, like 'the rhex- 

 ias and ludwigias, shed their flowers as soon as put in the vasculum, 

 and there are many families allied to Acanthaceae which do not hold 

 their flowers long, and need to be hurried into the press. The eccen- 

 tricities of some Leguminosae and Malvaceae are hard to understand. 

 It seems as though they try to baffle the collector. Once at Key West 

 I went out with a press for a Gossypium very early in the morning. I 

 had to wait till sunrise for the flowers to open, and before I secured all 

 I wanted, the flowers had fully closed again. 



Convolvulaceae, which abound in Florida, I used to consider 

 troublesome, but do not now. Late in the afternoon I select specimens 

 with buds just ready to open, arrange them loosely in tin receptacles, 

 sprinkle freely and cover. The next morning I find them in full and 

 perfect flower, and deliberately put them in press. The nocturnal spe- 

 cies, however, I have to press before going to bed. I usually close the 

 flowers of the large flowered species of this family, because the inner 

 surface will adhere even to oiled paper. 



A good way to secure perfect flower specimens of the splendid but 

 tissue-like Ganna fiaccida, of Iris and various other Monocotyledonae 

 with delicate flowers, as also of some troublesome Polypetalae, is to col- 

 lect specimens after the manner described for Convolvulaceae — not root 

 specimens — and let them bloom in water. Such flowers should be 

 pressed between folded pieces of waxed or paraffine paper. And I be- 

 lieve there is no other way of preserving the flowers of Commelinaceae 

 and of such genera as Sisyrinchiiim, Nemastylis and Xyris. The same 



