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52 DRYING AND PRESERVING 
to collect them in that state wherein their Generic and Specific 
characters are most conspicuous, Carry them home in a tin 
box, which may be made about nine inches long, four inches 
and a half wide, and one inch and a half deep. Get the box 
made of the thinnest tinned iron that can be procured ; and 
iet the lid open upon hinges. The box should be painted, or 
Jacquered, to prevent it rusting. If any thing happen to 
prevent the immediate use of the specimens you have collected, 
they will be kept fresh two or three days in this box, much — 
better than by putting them in water; but the Blofsoms of 
some plants are so very delicate, that they shrivel in a very 
short time, and often before you can well exatnine them. In 
this case, put the stems in water, cover the whole with a glafs 
hell, like those used in gardens, or the receiver of an air-pump | 
will do; expose them to the sun, and in half an hour, you 
will find them completely expanded: When you are about to 
preserve them, lay them down upon a pasteboard, as much 
as pofsible in their natural form; but; at the same time, with 
a particular view to their-Generic and Specific characters. 
- For this purpose it will be advisable to separate one or more 
wers, and to display them so as to shew the Generic 
character. If the Specific character depend upon the flower, 
or upon the root, a particular display of that will be like= 
wise necefsary. When ‘the plant is thus disposed upon the 
pasteboard, cover it with eight or ten layers of the blotting 
paper, and put it into the prefs. Exert only a small degree” 
of prefsure, for the first two or three days ; then examine 
it, unfold any unnatural plaits, rectify any mistakes, and, after 
_ putting fresh paper over it, screw the prefs a little harder. 
In about three days more, separaté the plant from the paste=_ : 
hoard, if it be sufficiently firm to allow of a change of place; _ 
put it upon a dry-fresh pasteboard, and, covering it with fresh 
blofsom paper, let it remain’in the prefs a few days longer. 
The prefs should stand in the sun-shine, or within the influ- 
ence of a fire, for nothing is so destructive to the beauty of the ¢ 
Specimens as along continued dampnefs.* Shrubs and many _ 
* One of my correspondents afsures me, that he finds old broad cloth he 
better than paper, for absorbing the moisture of the plants; but I have 
not had occasion te try it, 
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