I4S 



THE MUSEUM. 



or five, may be placed upon it, and 

 then another specimen, ad libitum. 

 When all are in this manner trans- 

 ferred, the pile should be placed in a 

 press, or with a stout board above and 

 below, loaded on the -top with some 

 heavy weights, stones, bricks, old 

 books, or anything available for that 

 purpose. Twenty-four hours at the 

 least, and forty-eight at the most, 

 they should remain unmoved. At the 

 expiration of this period each speci- 

 men should be transferred to a dry 

 sheet of paper, with three or four 

 thicknesses of dry paper between each 

 specimen, and again put under pres- 

 sure for the same period. The damp 

 paper from which the specimens are 

 taken should be at once dried in the 

 sun or before the fire. It is always 

 advisable to change the papers in 

 which specimens are being dried at 

 least four times during the first week; 

 some persons change them daily. Af- 

 ter the first week, if placed between 

 the folds of a fresh, dry sheet of pa- 

 per' once a week, and kept under a 

 moderate pressure for a month, the 

 drying process may be considered com- 

 plete. No specimen should be trans- 

 ferred to the herbarium in less than a 

 month from the time of its being col- 

 lected. 



There is one small caution which 

 must not be forgotten. A specimen 

 should never be put under pressure to 

 be dried without being accompanied 

 by a small scrap of paper, on which is 

 written the locality where the speci- 

 men was collected, and the date of 

 collection. A name can be added at 

 any time since the specimen itself will 

 furnish the data from which this may 

 be determined, but it will be impossi- 

 ble to furnish localities and dates with 

 any precision at a future occasion, and 

 upon the accuracy of these much of 

 the value of the specimen will depend. 



Before the specimen is permanently 

 transferred to the herbarium, it should 

 he poisoned, to prevent its injury or 

 destruction by mites and other predac- 

 ious little pests. A small quantity of 



finely powdered corrosive sublimate — 

 about as much as will lay on a four- 

 penny piece is sufficient — should be 

 put into a bottle containing 4 02. of 

 spirits of wine, and permitted to stand 

 for a day or two shaking the bottle oc- 

 casionally in the interim. With a 

 small brush this solution should be 

 brushed all over each specimen on 

 both surfaces, and then, when thor- 

 oughly dried, it may take its proper 

 place in the herbarium. 



Opinions may vary as to many of 

 the minor details of a herbarium, but 

 at the risk of not pleasing everyone, 

 we will present a scheme for the con- 

 struction and maintenance of a her- 

 barium of ferns. 



The paper on which the specimens 

 are to be mounted should not be too 

 thin; a good cartridge paper will an- 

 swer every purpose. The standard 

 herbarium size is about iS by 11 in- 

 ches. This is as large as any one 

 could desire. Each species, at least, 

 should have the whole of a sheet de- 

 voted to it. The larger ferns will re- 

 quire a separate sheet for each vari- 

 ety. The specimens should be laid on 

 the paper with the under or fructify- 

 ing surface uppermost, and the barren 

 side of the frond applied to the paper. 

 Small strips of gummed paper, about 

 an inch in length, and not more than 

 one-eighth of an inch in width, should 

 be laid across the principal and sec- 

 ondary ribs or branches of the frond, 

 and each end fastened down to the 

 sheet of paper; other pieces may, in 

 like manner, be placed across the tips 

 of the fronds, or wherever else ap- 

 pears to be necessary to secure the 

 specimen to the paper. It may be 

 suggested that too many such slips 

 disfigure the specimens, and if there 

 are not sufficient it cannot be retained 

 in its place. Experience must be the 

 best teacher. Some object to fasten- 

 ing the specimens to paper at all, 

 others recommend gluing them down 

 by the whole surface. Both these 

 plans appear to us to be equally ob- 

 jectionable. If the specimens are 



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