^I^FEISTDIX:. 



SUGGESTIONS TO BEGINNERS. 



More fully to complete the primary design of this little work, viz.,. 

 that of making it serve as a guide to collectors in the vicinity of Wash- 

 ington, I have deemed it appropriate to append to the foregoing cata- 

 logue and introductory remarks a very condensed description of the 

 methods of collecting and preserving botanical specimens. It is prob- 

 able that besides the occasional visits of botanists from other parts of 

 the country, and those who may hereafter remove from other places to 

 Washington and desire to contiaue, as all botanists do, their herboriza- 

 tions in their new home, for which two classes this treatise has been 

 chiefly designed, there will in the future be some, and it is to be hoped, 

 many, who will commence their botanical career in this place, and for 

 whom, therefore, this Appendix may possess a certain value. Should 

 the effort to introduce botany into the public schools be seriously made 

 and persevered in, an interest in the local flora will be rapidly awakened 

 among the resident population, and there will exist a demand for some 

 work bearing especially upon it, and also for a treatise on the art of 

 collecting. It may be said that directions and instructions of this kind 

 already exist, and are to be found in nearly all the school manuals- 

 This is true, and yet I think no experienced collector will gainsay the 

 statement that the greater part of the instructions given in text-books, 

 are soon disregarded as impracticable, and different, though far from, 

 uniform, methods are adopted by practical botanists. It is not my pur- 

 pose, nor would space permit me, to criticise these book-systems, or ta 

 compare them with the one here recommended. This any one may do 

 for himself. I propose simply to explain a practical method, but lati- 

 tudinarian in scope, which, if followed more or less closely, will yield 

 satisfactory results. This may be and is widely varied in its de- 

 tails, but in its general character it can be regarded as the accepted 

 method of most botanists of field experience. To avoid too lengthy 

 and profuse explanations, I sliall in the main confine ray suggestions to 

 Bull. Nat. Mus. No. 22 14 209 



