84 THE PLANT WOELD 



the fibers sliort, leaving rhizomes, pile the plants in a circular heap 

 with the roots outward, cover with wet paper or cloth all but the roots, 

 and wait till the latter have dried before pressing the specimens. Some 

 collectors save large masses of fibrous roots in making specimens. Such 

 roots make an herbarium dirty, and they have little or no iustnictive 

 value. Except as to annual herbs, which usually have mat roots, my 

 practice is to clip fibers short. For this and general trimmings, I pre- 

 fer shears to a knife. To secure the brittle tubers of orchids I cut out 

 a chunk of earth with a plant in the center, and then j)ull the earth 

 away from the root. Strings and slitted papers for confining grasses 

 and sedges, like cotton rings for sunflowers, I discarded long ago. 

 There is no need of bunching and crumpling grass specimens. They 

 can be as easily pressed in good shape as other plants. 



In preparing specimens of plants which have fleshy fruits with 

 large or curious seeds, such as Menispermaceae and some Sapotaceae, 

 Primus and Chrysohcdanus, Nyssa uniffora and N. capitata, it is desirable 

 to prepare some cleaned seeds. The quickest way to do this is by boil- 

 ing, but this will not do for Menispermaceae, as their thin shells would 

 warp out of shape. Of fleshy fruits hke crab apples and persimmons, 

 Anona and Zamia, I preserve a central slice with the stem attached and 

 partially air-dry before pressing. Some collectors think it a nice way 

 to send the fruit of Carya and Quercus separate from the leaf specimens. 

 Excepting the pines with fruit larger than P. mitis, I do not believe in 

 any fruit specimens without attached leaves, which testify to the cor- 

 rectness or incorrectness of the name. In i)reparing fruit specimens of 

 oaks, I spread out the specimen sheets and fold them in from both ends 

 and sides, making them the same size as before, but so shaped as to 

 prevent the nuts from rolling out, and I send the specimens away in 

 the same shape. If the acorns are quite large, I wrap some thin paper 

 around them and the stem to which they are attached. I have received 

 lots of kindling wood in the shape of flower specimens of Quercus, Bet- 

 ula, TJlmus, and the like, without a vestige of leaves. Why such stuff is 

 frequently sent out, I never could understand. 



Failure to thoroughly dry specimens is a bad fault. I used so often 

 to have to put sets back in press, that I now take none out unless the 

 driers are left dry enough for use with fresh specimens. Many fleshy 

 flowers, and especially heads of Compositae, contain eggs of insects. 

 From theso are born very destnictive larvae which often ruin specimens 

 if not promptly destroyed. Therefore I search closely for them on 

 first changing a set of any thick flowered plant. Last year I had a set 

 of Sagittaria Mohrii almost ruined in this way throagh neglect to look 

 at the specimens till after the worms had reduced most of the fruit 

 heads to powder. As Professor Bailey does not allude to worming the 



