340 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



paper witli all the water it has absorbed. It requires the greatest 

 care to prevent them shrivelling, even when pressed, especially if 

 they are changed in a warm room. The press is a compact little 

 apparatus, and very light, should be made of mahogany or cedar, 

 nine inches long and five and a half wide, fastened by two light 

 straps, as seen in the illustration (Fig. 5) ; it may stand on a 

 footstool in front of the fire, or in any warm corner near the fire- 

 place. 



The specimens should first be changed in about twelve hours 

 after having been put in, aud again every second day until dry ; 

 and take especial care not to press too tight, or the beauty of many 

 will be destroyed. 



MOUNTING FOR THE HEEBAEIDM. 



"When dry, the duplicates may be kept between folded sheets of 

 waste paper, the name of each (or what information may be deemed 

 proper) written at the left-hand bottom corner ; when mounted, it 

 should be on the stoutest note-paper, largest size, and named as the 

 duplicates. 



Very little expense or skill is required in forming a moss 

 herbarium ; the plants being so small, little trouble is involved in 

 mounting them, nor is it absolutely necessary to poison them, as 

 there is little for insects to feed upon. 



At present I have been addressing the amateur botanist, whose 

 chief aim is to have a well-named collection. There may be others, 

 however, whose chief delight is collecting, intending, as I before 

 mentioned, to get some botanist to name them, or who intends to 

 use them to form devices, or in the manufacture of fancy articles, 

 for which they are most appropriate from the many delicate forms 

 in which Nature has fashioned them. Besides this, the species 

 most suitable for ornamental uses are abundant, and may be easily 

 ^yed in a great variety of colours. To use mosses for such purposes 

 proceed as follows : — 



COLLECTING FOR FANCY WORK. 



Have a large unglazed-holland bag, choose the driest weather, 

 «collect as many as you require (or as many as you can find) of every 

 species you meet with ; put all together into the bag carelessly, 

 rolling up in scraps of paper the Phascums and such as are removed 

 with the dirt. On reaching home, if any are in the slightest degree 

 damp, let them be dried thoroughly before a fire, or by exposure in 

 a warm room. The collections of a day, week, montli, or year, may 

 be all packed together in a bag or box provided with partitions to 

 separate certain districts or periods of collecting : they may be so 

 kept for years if necessary, and the whole or any portion may be 

 properly dried at any time that may be convenient. By maceration 

 in boiling water, and pressing in the ordinary way, many will come 

 out of the water in all the freshness and beauty of form they pos- 

 sessed when growing, years after collecting. 



This is a most valuable and important fact for the tourist, as. 



