28 JOURNAL OF THE 



Botany is pre-emineDtly the science of observation, and the 

 observino; faculty is the most fundamental faculty of the mind. 

 Observation supplies the solid foundation upon which all the 

 higher faculties must rest, when they rest upon anythino^. With- 

 out such a foundation, and the check a well disciplined observ- 

 ing faculty places upon the imagination, the latter faculty is very 

 apt to run away with the judgment. We daily see. often to our 

 cost, how inherited instincts and developed prejudices so pervert 

 judgment and reason that two men of equal respectability and 

 mental calibre^ if they belong to different political faiths, will 

 make diametrically opposite reports concerning the working of 

 some law or set of circumstances. 



As already remarked, neither for mental discipline nor for 

 useful knowledge does the private herbarium subserve any use- 

 ful purpose. But it would perhaps be over-sanguine to expect 

 that a simple expostulation like tiiis will suffice to convert the 

 present generation of herb-secreting botanists. 



i^ccording to the famous law of Mr. Darwin, the modern 

 herbariumist, while deluding himself with the fancy that he is 

 doing something useful, is in reality merely gratifying a once 

 useful instinct which has outlasted its function — an instinct 

 inherited from a long line of herl)ivorous and nucivorous, pre- 

 hensile-tailed ancestors. 



Since, then, the private herbarium may not be done away with 

 at a .stroke, some directions tending to shorten the time absorbed 

 in the mechanical work of the herbarium may not be wholly out 

 of place. 



In the first place, good, .symmetrical and full-grown plants 

 should be selected for specimens. Collect the whole plant — root 

 and branch — when not over three feet high. When higher than 

 this, that length, measurirjg downwards from the top, may be 

 cut off; and in addition, a few inches of the stem with the leaves 

 next the ground, and the root, .should be secured. 



Of trees, flowering twigs, showing the bark as well as leaves 

 and flowers, will suffice. A sharp knife to cut off twigs, a 

 trowel to dig up roots, an air-tight tin box of convenient size, 



