148 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 
a chance and leaving them tied up till they either dried or molded and 
rotted. The necessity for drying them properly was not even considered. 
Whether Nuttall ever made any decent specimens I do not know. All of 
his that I have seen showed the inadequacy of his equipment, for they 
were blackened in the drying and almost worthless. But they are all that 
are left of his many types. They have been mounted and arranged by 
Thomas Meehan. I was able to examine his Astragalus material in 1897. 
No doubt Freemont’s trips across the continent were made on horse- 
back and with limited space for specimens. This was in the early for- 
ties. Practically all the types taken on Government surveys were Col 
lected in the same way. Wagon roads were not available in those days, 
for buffalo trails were the only roads. 
My own experience with making specimens began in the early seven- 
ties, some thirty years after Nuttall’s time, when wagon roads had been 
made by emigrants all over the west, and when transcontinental rail- 
When I began to get ready for my first trip to Colorado, I had the 
benefit of advice from all the old ladies and old men who never had 
with hobnails to enable me to climb the mountains. Also following 
their advice, I took tissue paper to put my specimens in but found it a nuis- 
ance. For driers I bought butcher paper and folded it in about four layers 
to make driers a foot wide and a foot and a half long, sewing the layers 
together around the edges. At that time some wise guy in the east had 
evolved a theoretical drier out of felt cut to the regular size and one 
quarter inch thick, and sold them at a reasonable price, which was, how- 
ever, altogether out of my reach. Then another wise guy had evolved a 
holes punched along the sides. This press I used as a portfolio to ae 
with me in the field. For a press I used boards, tying them up wit! 
ropes. en in camp I put a heavy board and a stone on top to keep it 
Since I walked about 15 miles a day botanizing, my cowhide shoes 
came a nuisance, although they stood the wear and tear of walking 
7. 
each step took so much energy that I was tired out every night, but, being 
young, I did not realize what was the matter. When the weather was 
wet or cold they were very uncomfortable. In the Death Valley 1 pl 
I wore my old cowhide shoes one year but found that the hobnails 
heat of the ground was such that in walking from Ballarat to the = 
amint Mountains one day I actually had to sit down on the ground an 
hold my feet up while the soles cooled off. 
