The Scottish Naturalist. 1 7 1 



obtained at a reasonable price from any cabinetmaker. Get 

 several sheets of unbleached wadding cotton and cut them to 

 the size of the boards, one sheet should supply four pieces, and 

 two pieces will be required for each board; also, a quire or two 

 of thin whitey-brown paper, which, together with the cotton, I 

 have found far superior to any other drying paper. A dozen 

 or so of leaden weights, about the size of a penny-piece, and four 

 times as thick, should be provided j a sharp pen-knife, a pair of 

 scissors, a pair of forceps, and some small bits of paper from an 

 inch to three or four inches square should be lying handy. To 

 proceed, place a piece of the wadding with the gummed side 

 downwards on one of the boards, with a sheet of paper between 

 to prevent its sticking to the board, (the paper will adhere to 

 the cotton, and can always be left attached to it.) Then a sheet 

 of paper over the wadding, laying the plant upon it, opening the 

 petals, place a small piece of paper over them with a weight, 

 and where any leaves overlap put paper between and a weight to 

 keep them down, and so on, always keeping the plant in a 

 natural position ; should the leaves or branches be too numerous 

 some may be cut out with the scissors, taking care to leave 

 sufficient of the stalks to shew where they were cut ; in 

 case of very woody or thick-rooted plants the pen-knife may 

 be brought into use, and the reverse side neatly sliced off. 

 When the plant is in position, place a sheet of paper over it, 

 then a piece of wadding, after which carefully abstract the 

 weights from underneath, taking care not to alter the position 

 of the plant, then another sheet of paper over the gummed 

 part of the wadding (to remain), and then a board, and so on 

 with each specimen where they require a whole sheet to them- 

 selves. The boards with the plants between them should then 

 be submitted to a heavy weight for twelve or twenty-four hours, 

 according to the nature of the plants. Supposing the plants to 

 have been laid out at night, they should be gone over every 

 morning, the upper boards and the top waddings taken off, 

 leaving the papers over the specimens, as well as the under 

 papers and under wadding ; they should then be left in a warm 

 dry room all day, and would incur no harm if put in the sun, 

 but must be watched, and if there is any tendency to curl up 

 or shrivel, they should immediately be restored to the press. 

 In the evening, after having gone over the plants to see that 



