210 FLORA OF WASHINGTON AND VICINITY 



the line of operation which considerable experience and tlie temporary 

 adoption of numerous different methods have finally convinced me to 

 be upon the whole the best, although the circumstances may often so 

 vary as to render considerable modification advisable. Such modifica- 

 tions will, however, usually suggest themselves, and choice methods 

 will occasionally be introduced as equally advantageous or widely in 



use. 



I. — Identification of plants. 



I place the identification before the collection of plants because 

 for the beginner it should be chronologically the first thing done. 

 Kot that plants are to be studied altogether in situ without remov- 

 ing them from their natural attachments to the soil, for this can 

 be done without i^roperly collecting them. The term '"collection" 

 should be regarded as a technical one, and by no means the same thing 

 as the mere gathering of flowers. It is an art, like every other step in 

 practical botany, and requires skill, which is greatly increased bj' expe- 

 rience; and here the general advice may be given to beginners in botany 

 not to attempt to make a collection of plants the first year, and perhaps 

 not the second. Those who begin by trying to preserve everything they 

 get from the first, usually find after a few years of experience that they 

 have wasted much time and labor, as well as money, for a well-arranged 

 Tierbnrium is a source of considerable expense. They find that they have 

 lost time in drying and mounting specimens which are sure to be, if 

 retained, an eye-sore to their better educated taste, and which they 

 nevertheless feel loth to throw away along with the sheets to which they 

 are attached, after having devoted so much time and labor to their 

 preservation. Mistakes of this kind will inevitably occur as a neces- 

 sary part of experience in learning, but a large portion of the waste 

 -which they occasion can be avoided by a little patience in the codi- 

 mencement of the work. 



It is, of course, a good plan to do as large a part as possible of the 

 work of analyzing flowers in the field, where they may be examined in 

 their natural state of turgescence and with all their organs in their 

 functional positions. In this condition the relations of the parts may 

 be much more clearly seen, and the whole work of identification is 

 greatly simphfied. But it is never possible to do everything hi this 

 way. Few have the leisure to spend whole days in the country for the 

 study of flowers, and if any had there would still be parts of the work 

 which could be much better done in a quiet room surrounded by the 



