50-6 OF MAKING AN 



quent study, and a very expensive and bulky 

 way of making an herbarium. 



The greater part of plants dry with facility 

 between the leaves of books, or other paper, 

 the smoother the better. If there be plenty 

 of paper, they often dry best without shift- 

 ing ; but if the specimens are crowded, they 

 must be taken out frequently, and the paper 

 dried before they are replaced. The great 

 point to be attended to is that the process 

 should meet with no check. Several vesreta- 

 bles are so tenacious of their vital principle, 

 that they will grow between papers, the con- 

 sequence of which is a destruction of their 

 proper habit and colours. It is necessaiy to 

 destroy the life of such, either by immersion 

 in boiling water, or by the application of a 

 hot iron, such as is used for linen, after which 

 they are easily dried. I cannot however ap- 

 prove of the practice of applying such an iron, 

 as some persons do, with great labour and 

 perseverance, till the plants are quite dry, 

 and all their parts ineorporated into a smooth 

 flat mass. This renders them unfit for sub- 

 sequent examination, and destroys their na- 

 tural habit, the most important thing to be 



